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THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY
EDITED BY
E. CAPPS, pu.p., 1.1..}. T. E.. PAGE, urrr.n.
γ᾽. H. ἢ. ROUSE, trrt.p.
THE WORKS OF THE EMPEROR
JULIAN
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THE WORKS OF THE
EMPEROR JULIAN
WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY
WILMER CAVE WRIGHT, Pus.D.
LATE OF GIRTON COLLEGF, CAMBRIDGE
PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN BRYN MAWR COLLEGE,
PENNSYLVANIA
IN THREE VOLUMES
ΠῚ
LONDON : WILLIAM HEINEMANN
NEW YORK : G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
MOMXXIII
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION TO THE LETYFERS
BIBLIOGRAPHY τοῖς ὁ το...
LETTERS 1-58 WITH ῬΑΤΕΒ.
LETTERS 59-73 UNDATED ......
APOCRYPHAL LETTERS 74-83 .
THE SHORTER FRAGMENTS. .
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INTRODUCTION TO ( AGAINST THE GALILAEANS ”
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS. .. .
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TABLE OF NUMBERS
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INTRODUCTION
THe more important letters and edicts in this
volume are hardly intelligible to a reader unfamiliar
with the historical background. The following brief
summary of Julian’s career is intended to explain
the allusions in the text and to supplement the
Introduction in Vol. 1. In his more formal works,
especially the manifesto 70 the Athenians written in
361 as an apologia for his rebellion against the
Emperor Constantius, and the Misopogon written
in 362, a satire on his own austere habits addressed
to the citizens of Antioch, Julian himself relates the
main incidents of his childhood and youth, For
the last ten years of his life, 353-363, the best
authority is Ammianus Marcellinus, the Latin
historian, an eye-witness.
Flavius Claudius Julianus was born at Constanti-
nople in 331, the only son of Julius Constantius,
half-brother of Constantine the Great, and Basilina,
a highly educated woman and devout Christian, who
died when Julian was a few months old. From his
father’s earlier marriage there survived a son, Gallus,
a daughter, probably named Galla, who married her
cousin the Emperor Constantius II, and another son
whose name is unknown. Soon after the death of
the Emperor Constantine in 337, the Emperor
Constantius removed possible rivals by the murder
Vii
INTRODUCTION
of certain relatives, among whom were Julian’s
father and half-brother. Gallus and Julian survived.
The latter was sent to Nicomedia in charge of a
relative, the Bishop Eusebius, and _ his education
_ was entrusted to the Christian eunuch Mardonius,
who had taught Basilina Greek literature. In
Misopogon 3538, Julian says that Mardonius was
“of all men most responsible” for his literary tastes
and austere morals,1 Julian also studied at Constanti-
‘nople with the Christian sophist Hecebolius.2 Dur-
ing this period he used to visit his grandmother’s
estate in Bithynia, which is described in Letter 25,
In 345, when Julian was fourteen, Constantius, who
in the twenty-four years of his reign that followed
the murder of Julius Constantius lived in appre-
hension of the vengeance of his sons, interned
Gallus and Julian in the lonely castle of Macellum
(Fundus Macelli) in Cappadocia. In his manifesto
To the Athenians 271 c, Ὁ, Julian speaks of their six
years of solitary imprisonment at Macellum, and
says that the cruelty and harshness of Gallus, who
proved to be a sort of Christian Caligula, were
increased by hig life there, while his own love of
philosophy saved him from being equally brutalised.
From Letter 23 we learn that he was able to borrow
books from George of Cappadocia, who later became
Bishop of Alexandria and was murdered by the
Alexandrian mob in 261. Julian at once wrote
Letter 23 to demand his library.
1 For the influence of Mardonius see Vol. 2 Oration 8,
2410; To the Athenians 274 Ὁ; Misopogon 352-353. Julian’s
knowledge of Latin was probably slight, though Ammianus,
16. 5. 7, describes it as « sufficiens,”
* For Hecebolius see Letter 63, and below, p. xlvii,
Viil
INTRODUCTION
In 351 Constantius, who had once visited the
brothers at Macellum, released them, raised Gallus
to the rank of Caesar and gave him his sister
Constantia in marriage. Constantius had married
as his first wife Galla, the sister of Gallus; she had
lately died. Gallus was sent to Antioch to govern
the provinces of the East. There he and Constantia,
whose cruel and suspicious temper matched his own,
embarked on a four years’ reign of terror which is
described by Ammianus.1 Constantius meanwhile,
at Arles, where he spent the winter of 353, and
later at Milan, was just as suspicious and ruthless,
but in Gallus Caesar tyrannical conduct seemed to
᾿ his cousin the prelude to usurpation. He was there-
fore recalled to Milan in 354. Constantia died of a
fever on the journey, and Gallus, escorted by the
Emperor’s agents as a virtual prisoner, was taken by -
way of Constantinople to Pola (where in 326 Crispus,
the son of Constantine, had been put to death by
his father), and was there beheaded, towards the end
of 354. Julian later avenged himself on those whom
he believed to have been accessory to the death of
his brother.
Meanwhile he had devoted four years to study,
first at Pergamon with Aedesius and Chrysanthius,
the disciples of Iamblichus; but on hearing from
Aedesius of the marvels wrought by his pupil
Maximus of Ephesus the theurgist, he hastened to
Ephesus.2. Julian had been under Christian in-
fluences from his childhood, but he was an ardent
admirer of Greek literature and philosophy and
1 Book XIV.
3. See the account of his studies at Pergamon and Ephesus
in Eunapius, Lives, pp. 429-435, Wright.
ix
INTRODUCTION
naturally inclined to superstition. With Maximus
he studied the teachings of Iamblichus the Neopla-
tonist, and though he did not openly profess
paganism until 361, he says in Letter 47, written in -
362, that for twelve years he has ceased to be a
Christian.
The Syrian Neoplatonism of the fourth Christian
century which followed the teachings of Iamblichus
was a religion rather than a philosophy, and was
well suited to his love of the mystical and marvellous;
for the rest of his life he was the devoted disciple
of Maximus. But his apostasy from Christianity
was carefully concealed, and his first panegyrie on
Constantius, Oration 1, written in 355, is entirely
non-committal, refers vaguely to “the deity” and
. “providence,” and might have been composed by
a Christian.
In the second panegyric, Oration 2, written in
Gaul at a safe distance, he frequently invokes Zeus,
and assumes the reality of the gods of Homer in
language that goes beyond what was allowed by
literary etiquette in rhetorical works of this sort.
It could not have been written by a Christian. His
brother Gallus, some time between 351 and 354,
heard rumours of his devotion to Maximus, and sent
his own spiritual adviser Aetius to remonstrate with
Julian. Letter 82 (Gallus to Julian), the earliest
letter in this volume that can be dated, expresses
the relief of Gallus at the reassuring report of
Aetius as to Julian’s adherence to the Christian
faith.
On the death of Gallus in 354 Julian was sum-
moned to the court at Milan, and on the way thither
visited Troy and had the interview with Pegasius
x
INTRODUCTION
which is described in Letter 19. Ammianus says?
that Julian’s life was in danger at Milan from the
plots of enemies, who accused him to Constantius of
having met Gallus at Constantinople in 354, and of
having left Macellum without permission. Julian
denies the first of these charges in Oration 3. 1314,
and in To the Athenians 273 a. He was saved by the
intercession of the second wife of Constantius, the
Empress Eusebia, who, after seven months of
suspense, obtained for him his single audience with
the Emperor and permission to go to Athens to
study. We know little of his brief stay of about
two months in Athens in 355, but he was almost
certainly initiated into the Mysteries at Eleusis,?
and probably attended the lectures of the aged
Christian sophist Prohaeresius, to whom in 361 or
early in 362 he wrote Letter 14. Among his fellow-
students were two Cappadocians, Gregory Nazianzen,
who after Julian’s death wrote bitter invectives
against the apostate and an unflattering description
of his appearance and manners, and Basil the
Great, to whom Julian addressed Letter 26. From
Athens the Emperor recalled Julian 8. in September
to Milan, where after some delay he was raised to
the rank of Caesar on November 6, 355, given the
task of pacifying the Gallic provinces, and married
to Helena, the sister of Constantius. She was much
older than he, had little influence on his life, and
died in Gaul, without issue, not long after Julian
"15. eB
* The evidence for this is Eunapius, Lives, p. 437,
Wright.
8. For his grief at leaving Athens see Vol. 2, 70 the
Athenians, 275 A.
xi
INTRODUCTION
had been proclaimed Augustus by the army. The
motives of Constantius in making Julian Caesar are
not clear. Eunapius says that he hoped his cousin
would be killed in Gaul. Eusebia may have per-
suaded the Emperor that their childlessness was a
punishment for his treatment of his relatives. The
Gallic provinces were overrun by barbarians, and
Constantius could not go there himself because he
was occupied on the Danube with the Sarmatians
and the Quadi, and by the threat of the Persians
in Mesopotamia. Julian set out for Gaul on
December 1, 355, with a small troop of 360 men
who “only knew how to pray,’ as he says in
frag. 5. Eusebia gave him a library of books which
he took with him. His task was to expel the hordes
of Germans who, having been invited by Constantius
to assist in suppressing the usurper Magnentius, had
remained to overrun and devastate the country, and
had destroyed the Roman forts on the Rhine. In
his five years of campaigning in Gaul,! though he
was continually thwarted by the officers whom
Constantius had sent to watch his movements,
Julian pacified the provinces and restored their
prosperity, recovered 20,000 Gallic prisoners from
Germany, expelled the Germans, defeated the
Franks and Chamavi, restored the Roman forts, and
crossed the Rhine four times. In August 357 he
won the famous battle of Argentoratum (Strasbourg),
which was fought somewhere between Saverne and
Strasbourg, and sent Chnodomar, the king of the
Alemanni, captive to Constantius. He spent the
winter of 358-359 at Paris, whence he wrote to his
1 For the condition of Gaul and his achievements there see
Vol. 2, To the Athenians, 278-280.
xii
INTRODUCTION
friend the physician Oribasius, at Vienne, Leller 4,
of which the first part, with its dream,! is highly
sophistic but expresses vague fears that he and
Constantius may be involved in ruin together; the
second part describes his opposition to the pretorian
prefect Florentius, his persistent enemy, whom
he forbade to recommend to Constantius increased
taxes on the Gallic provincials. In this letter Julian
wishes that he may not be deprived of the society
of Sallust, his pagan friend and adviser, but Sallust
was recalled by the suspicious Constantius in 358.
While he was in Gaul, Julian continued his
studies, corresponded with sophists and philosophers
such as Maximus, Libanius and Priscus, wrote
Oration 2, a panegyric of Constantius; Oration 3,
a panegyric of Eusebia; Oration ὃ, to console him-
self for the loss of Sallust; an account of the battle
of Strasbourg which has perished ; and perhaps the
treatise on logic which we know only from the
reference to it in Suidas.2. To some of these works
he refers at the end of Letter 2, To Priscus. That
he wrote commentaries on his Gallic campaigns has
been maintained by some scholars but cannot be
proved.
Constantius, who had already suppressed four
usurpers, either full-blown or suspected of ambition,
Magnentius, Vetranio, Silvanus and Gallus Caesar,
was alarmed at the military successes of his cousin,
who had left Milan an awkward student, ridiculed by
the court, and had transformed himself into a skilful
general and administrator, adored by the Gallic
1 Julian’s dream may be, as Asmus thinks, an echo of
Herodotus, 1. 108, but the parallel is not close.
2 3.v. ᾿Ιουλιανός.
ΧΙ
INTRODUCTION
army and the provincials. The Emperor was on the
eve of a campaign against Sapor, the Persian king,
and needed reinforcements. It was an opportune
moment for weakening Julian’s influence by with-
drawing the flower of his troops for service in the
East. Accordingly, in the winter of 359-360, Julian
received peremptory orders, brought by the tribune
Decentius, to send to the Emperor, under the com-
mand of Julian’s officers Lupicinus and Sintula, the
finest of his troops, in fact more than half his army
of 23,000 men. Many of these were barbarian
auxiliaries who had taken service with Julian on
condition that they should not serve outside Gaul,
and the Celtic troops, when the order became
known, were dismayed at the prospect of leaving
their lands and families at the merey of renewed
invasions of barbarians. Florentius was at Vienne,
and refused to join Julian in Paris and discuss the
question of the safety of Gaul if the troops should
be withdrawn. Meanwhile two of the legions
requisitioned by Constantius were in Britain fighting
the Picts and Scots. But when the others reached
Paris from their winter quarters in February 360, on
their march eastwards, their discontent resulted in
open mutiny, and Julian, whose loyalty towards
Constantius up to this point is unquestioned, failed
to pacify them. They surrounded the palace? at
night, calling on Julian with the title of Augustus,
and when, after receiving a divine sign,? he came out
1 Julian was lodged in what is now the Musée des
Thermes.
2 See 70 the Athenians, 2840, and cf. Letter 2, p. 5.
Ammianus 20. 4 gives a full account of the mutiny and of
Julian’s speeches to the army and letter to Constantius.
Xiv
INTRODUCTION
at dawn, he was raised on ashield and crowned witha
standard-bearer’s chain in default of a diadem. Julian
sent by Pentadius and the loyal eunuch Eutherius
a full account of these events to Constantius, who
replied that he must be content with the title of
Caesar. Constantius had already gone to Caesarea
to prepare for his Persian campaign, and decided to
meet the more pressing danger from the East before
he reckoned with Julian. The prefect Florentius
fled to the Emperor and was made consul for 361.
Constantius sent Nebridius the quaestor to succeed
Florentius in Gaul, and Julian accepted him as
prefect. Julian left Paris for Vienne by way of
Besancon, which town he describes in Letter 8.
Thence he led his troops to another victory, this
time over the Attuarii, who were raiding Gaul, and
on November 6, 360, he celebrated his quinquennalia
or fifth year as Caesar. He had not yet declared
his change of religion, and in January 361 at Vienne,
where he spent the winter, he took part in the
feast of the Epiphany. In July he set out for the
East, determined to win from Constantius recognition
of his rank as Augustus, either by persuasion or by
force. His troops were divided so as to march by
three different routes, and he led the strongest
division through the Black Forest (see frag. 2) and
_along the Danube. Sirmium (Mitrovitz) weleomed
him with acclamation in October, and he went into
winter quarters at Naissa (Nish). Thence he
addressed to the Roman Senate, the Spartans,
_ Corinthians and Athenians manifestos justifying his
conduct towards Constantius and proclaiming his
design to restore the Hellenic religion. Of these
documents only the letter to the Athenians sur-
XV
INTRODUCTION
vives, and a brief fragment of the letter to the
Corinthians (frag. 3). Meanwhile, as he informs
Maximus in Letter 8, he and his soldiers openly
~sacrificed to the gods. He now regarded himself
as conducting a war in the name of Hellenism.
Some time in 361 he wrote the Kronia (Saturnala),
and says in Oration 4. 157c that he sent it to his
friend Sallust. Of this work Suidas has preserved
a few lines (frag. 4).+
Meanwhile Constantius, who had achieved nothing
conclusive against the Persians, had married, at
Antioch, his third wife Faustina. Their only child,
a daughter, was married later to the Emperor
Gratian, but died young. Constantius had now no
choice but to lead his army to defend Constantinople
against Julian. But at Tarsus he fell ill, and on
November 3, 361, died of a fever at Mopsucrene
in Cilicia. When Julian heard the news he wrote
Letters 8 and 13, in which he thanks the gods for
his escape from civil war. He entered Constanti-
nople in triumph as Emperor on December 11,
361. .
The greater number of the letters in this volume
that can be dated were written after Julian’s acces-
sion, in 362, from Constantinople and Antioch. He
lost no time in inviting to his court his friends
Maximus from Ephesus (Letter 8), Chrysanthius from
Sardis,2, Eutherius the eunuch, his trusted court
chamberlain (Letter 10), Eustathius (Letter 43),
Priscus,? and Basil (Letter 26). Chrysanthius and
Basil did not accept this invitation, and Julian, when
1 Suidas, s.v. Empedotimus.
2 See Eunapius, Lives, p. 441, Wright.
8 Ibid., p. 445.
Xvi
INTRODUCTION
he had failed to persuade Chrysanthius to follow the
example of Maximus and disregard the omens which
were unfavourable to their journey, appointed him
high priest of Lydia.
In contrast with the wholesale butchery with
which Constantius had begun his reign, Julian ap-
pointed a commission, partly composed of former
officers of Constantius, to sit at Chalcedon across
Ahe Bosporus and try his enemies, especially those
who had abetted the cruelties of Constantius or
were accessory to the death of Gallus. Ammianus,
22. 3, describes the work of this commission, on
which were Sallust, Mamertinus and Nevitta the
Goth. Among those condemned to death were the
notorious informer and agent of Constantius, Paul,
nicknamed “the Chain,’! the eunuch Eusebius,
chamberlain of Constantius (see Letter 4, p. 11), and
the ex-prefect, the consul Florentius, whose oppres-
sion of the Gallic provincials is described in the
same letter. Florentius managed to conceal himself
till after Julian’s death.
On February 4, 362, Julian proclaimed religious
freedom in the Empire, and ordered the restoration
of the temples. All who had used them as quarries
or bought portions of them for building houses were
to restore the stone and marble.? This often caused
great hardship to individuals, and even Libanius, a
devout pagan, more than once in his letters? inter-
cedes with local officials on behalf of those affected
by Julian’s edict. The Emperor recalled the ecclesi-
_astics who had been exiled by the Arian Constantius,
1 See Letter 53; Ammianus 14. 5. 6; 19. 12.
3. See Letter 29, to Count Julian, p. 99.
8 e.g. Letter 724, Foerster.
XVli
INTRODUCTION
among them Aetius, to whom he wrote Letter 15,
and the famous orthodox prelate Athanasius, for
whom see Letters 24, 46, 47.1 It was perhaps easier
to restore the temples than the half-forgotten ritual
of the gods, but Julian enlisted the aid of a learned
pagan, the Roman antiquarian and senator, Vettius
Agorius Praetextatus, whom in 362 he appointed
Proconsul of Achaia, while for the rites appropriate
to the oriental cults he certainly consulted Maximus
of Ephesus, who initiated him into the Mysteries of
Mithras.
Constantius, fully occupied with the persecution
of non-Arian Christians, had not persecuted pagan
intellectuals such as Libanius and Themistius the
philosopher, while even pagan officials such as
Sallust had been promoted in his reign. But Julian
gave instructions that pagans should be preferred to
Christians for public offices (Letter 37), and, as the
progress of “ Hellenism” proved slower than he had
hoped, he grew more intolerant. For evidence of
definite persecution of the Christians in his brief
reign we depend on Gregory Nazianzen, Socrates,
Sozomen and other historians of the Church. But
certain administrative measures referred to in the
letters were aimed at the Christians. As a part
of Julian’s general policy of exacting service in
their local senates from all well-to-do citizens, he
deprived Christian clerics of their immunity from
such service ;? funerals were no longer allowed to
1 Cf. the account of the life of Athanasius, p. xxxix.
2 See Letter 39, To the Byzacians. Libanius, Oration 18.
148, praises this reform. For Julian’s increase of the Senate
at Antioch cf. Misopogon 367 Dp. Codex Theodosianus 12. 1.
50-56.
XViii
INTRODUCTION
take place in the daytime according to the Christian
custom !; and one of his earliest reforms in connec=_
tion with the use of the public post, the cursus |
publicus, directly affected Christian ecclesiastics. The
privilege of free transport and the use of inns, horses
and mules at the expense of the State had been
granted to ecclesiastics by Constantine in 314; and
in the reign of Constantius, when the bishops were
summoned from all parts of the Empire to one
synod after another, the system of public transport
broke down under the burden.? In an edict pre-
ape in Codex Theodosianus 8.5. 12, dated Februar
22, 362, Julian reserves to himself, except in certain
cases, the right of granting evectio, or free transport.
In Letters ὃ, 15, and 26 he authorises his corre-
spondents to use State carriages and _ horses.
Libanius says that this reform was so thoroughly
carried out that often the animals and their drivers
had nothing to do.
But such withdrawals of privileges were pin-
pricks compared with the famous edict? in which
Julian reserved to himself the control of the appoint-
ments of teachers, and the rescript, Letter 36, in
which he forbade Christians to read the pagan authors
with their pupils. This meant that they must cease
to teach, since all education was based on the read-
ing of the poets, historians and philosophers. The
Christian sophist Victorinus, who was then lecturing
at Rome, and Prohaeresius at Athens, must resign
their chairs. Julian offered a special exemption to
1 See Letter 56, the edict on funerals.
2 See Libanius, Oration, 18. 143; Ammianus 21. 16. 18.
ὃ The Latin edict, dated June 17, 362, survives in Codex
Theodosianus 18. 3. 5.
xix
INTRODUCTION
Prohaeresius, but the sophist, says Eunapius,! re-
fused the privilege. He could afford to wait in
patience, for, like many another distinguished
Christian, he consulted the omens through the
pagan hierophant of Greece, and learned indirectly,
but to his own reassurance, that Julian’s power
would be short-lived. Even Ammianus the pagan
historian deplored the bigotry and malice of Julian’s
attempt to suppress Christian educators. “It was,”
he says, “‘a harsh measure, aud had better be buried
in eternal silence.” ? The Christians interpreted it
as excluding their children from education; Theo-
doret, 3. 4. 2, says as much, and quotes a saying of
Julian’s (frag. 7), whose context is lost, to the effect
that the Christians arm their intellects to oppose
Hellenism by means of the Hellenic masterpieces.
Socrates, 3. 12. 7, quotes another saying of the same
sort ( frag. 6). These two quotations perhaps belong
to lost rescripts aimed at Christian teachers, which
followed the extant edict and rescript. Well-
educated Christians can hardly have been consoled
by the enterprise of a father and son named
Apollinarius, who “within a very brief space of
time,” says Sozomen, 5. 18, converted the Bible
into epics, tragedies, comedies, odes and dialogues
for the education of Christian youths. But
Christian teachers did not suffer much inconveni-
ence, for Julian’s prohibition can hardly have been
enforced in the few months that preceded _his
1 Lives, p. 513, Wright.
292. 10. 7: illud inclemens . . . obruendum perenni
silentio. He repeats this criticism in 25. 4, 20. Libanius,
however, was delighted, and taunted Basil and Gregory as
‘* barbarians, ”
xX
INTRODUCTION
death. The edict was rescinded by the Emperor _
Valentinian.
In his dealings with the Jews, Julian reversed the
policy of Constantius and Gallus Caesar, who had
treated them with extreme harshness.1_ He freed
them from the taxes levied on them as Jews, and
invited them to renew their ancient sacrifices.
When they replied that this could be done only in
the Temple at Jerusalem he promised to rebuild the
Temple, and restore Jerusalem to the Jews. He
may almost be called a Zionist. The historians of
the Church say that Julian desired to nullify the
prophecy of Christ, that not one stone of the Temple
should remain on another, and exult in the fact that
his project had to be abandoned, owing to the earth-
quakes that were experienced in the East in the
winter of 362-363. Julian himself speaks of his
plan of rebuilding the Temple,? and Ammianus says
that the work was entrusted to Alypius, the ex-
Governor of Britain, to whom Julian when in Gaul
wrote Letters 6 and 7, and that it was abandoned
owing to mysterious “balls of flame” which burned
the workmen. Almost the same account is given
by Philostorgius 7. 9, Theodoret 3. 15, and other
historians of the Church. Nevertheless, Lardner in
Jewish and Heathen Testimony 4. p. 47, and Adler
in the Jewish Quarterly Review, 1893, deny that the
work was ever undertaken, and assert that Ammia-
nus derived his account. from Gregory Nazianzen’s
1 Sozomen 4. 7. 5.
2 Vol. 2, Fragment of a Letter 295 0; Letter 51. 398 a;
and Lydus, de Mensibus 4. 53, quotes Julian as saying
aveyelpw ... . τὸν ναὸν τοῦ ὑψίστου θεοῦ, “41 am rebuilding
the Temple of the Most High God.”
xxi
INTRODUCTION
spiteful Jnvective against Julian, and that the Christian
historians were taken in by Gregory’s invention. .
But Ammianus was with Julian at Antioch that
winter and on the march to Persia in 363, and must
have known the facts. He did not need to depend
on Gregory for information ;—Gregory does not, in
fact, mention the appointment of Alypius—nor
would Gregory have been likely to write his detailed
account of the zealous cooperation of the Jews in
the building if he could have been refuted by any
resident of Jerusalem. We may therefore believe
that the enterprise was begun but was given up
because of earthquakes, and possibly also because
Julian had withdrawn to Persia. The rescript 70
the Community of the Jews (Letter 51), though it is
cited by Sozomen 5. 22 and Socrates 3. 20 as Julian’s,
has been condemned as a forgery by Schwarz, Klimek
and Geffcken, was considered “trés suspect” by
Bidez and Cumont in 1898 (Recherches) and is rejected
outright by them in their edition of 1922. Their
arguments are based on the general tone of the
document, and the strange reference to “ my
brother” the Jewish patriarch, but while the
rescript may have been rewritten or edited in a
bureau, it probably represents the sentiments of
Julian and is consistent with his attitude to the
Jews as expressed in the treatise Against the Gali-
laeans. It has therefore been placed with the
genuine letters in this volume.
The appeal On behalf of the Argives (Letter 28),
was accepted as genuine by all editors before Bidez
and Cumont, and by Schwarz, Geffcken and Asmus,
and was formerly assigned by Cumont to the year
355, when Julian was a student at Athens. Bidez
ΧΧΙΪ
INTRODUCTION
and Cumont (1922) now accept the theory of Keil?
that it is not by Julian, but was composed in the
first century a.p. as a letter of recommendation
(ἐπιστολὴ συστατική). Maas, however, maintains that
it was written by the high-priest Theodorus in
Julian’s reign, and that the proconsul’s rejection of
its appeal is referred to in Julian’s letter to Theodorus,
p. 37. But there is nothing in it that could not have
been written by Julian, and it would be natural for
him to defend ancient Argos, which had probably
remained Hellenic, and her sacred festivals against
Romanised and Christianised Corinth, the provincial
metropolis. Julian disliked beast shows ? as much as
Constantius had loved them, and the tribute exacted
from Argos was used to pay for such shows (see p.
89). He asks a favour rather than gives orders as
an Emperor, but this was consistent with his custom
of referring such appeals as that of the Argives to
the governors of the provinces. We do not know
from other sources when the Argives began to pay
tribute to Corinth, though there is abundant evidence
that under the Empire the minor cities of Greece
did pay tribute to Corinth instead of to Rome. On
the whole I see no reason for suspecting the authenti-
city of this document, or for assigning it to Julian’s
student days at Athens.
In May or June 362 Julian left Constantinople for
Antioch, the capital of the provinces of the East,
1 In Nachrichten Ges. d. Wiss. zu Gottingen, 19138.
2 i.e. public exhibitions of combats of wild beasts, such
as were regularly given at the expense of the municipalities
at this period.
8 For this policy see Ammianus 16. 5. 13. Heyler’s
comment on Letter 28 is—cogit rogando.
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INTRODUCTION
and about this time he wrote Letter 35 to Aristoxenus,
asking him to meet him at Tyana, and Letter 29 to
_ his uncle at Antioch, whom he had appointed Count
cof the East (Comes Orientis); he refers to their
approaching meeting at Antioch (p. 105). On the
way he visited and wept over Nicomedia, which had
been destroyed by an earthquake in 358,1 and Pes-
sinus, where he sacrificed to Cybele the Mother of
the Gods at her ancient shrine. From Letter 42 to
Callixeine it appears that as a consequence of his
visit he appointed her priestess of Cybele at Pessinus.
That the citizens of Pessinus had displeased him by
a lack of enthusiasm for the restoration of their
famous cult may be gathered from Letter 22, p. 73.
Julian also visited Tarsus, in whose suburb near
the river Cydnus he was destined to be buried in
the following year. He arrived at Antioch to-
wards the end of July, and wrote Letter 41, the
rescript to the citizens of Bostra, on August 1.2. In
January 363 he entered on the consulship (see
Letter 54).
In the Misopogon (Loeb Library, Vol. 2), Julian
has himself described his nine months’ stay at
Antioch. The city was predominantly Christian
and opposed to his restoration of paganism, so that
when the celebrated temple of Apollo in the beauti-
ful suburb of Daphne was burned in 362, he ascribed
it to the malice of the Christians. The citizens, who
were notoriously pleasure-loving and _ luxurious,
openly ridiculed his austere way of life and disliked
his reforms. During the winter he wrote the
1 Ammianus 22, 9. 3-5,
2 Julian’s first edict from Antioch in Codex Theodosianus
1, 16. 8 is dated July 28, 362.
χχὶν
INTRODUCTION
treatise Against the Galilaeans. When he left Antioch
on March 5, 363, for his Persian campaign he
announced that he would spend the coming winter,
not at Antioch, but at Tarsus. This showed that
he expected a short campaign. In the extant letters
he does not mention his disappointment with his
reception at Antioch, though in Leller 58, 399 c,
written on March 10 or 11 at Hierapolis, he alludes
to his interview with the delegates from the senate
of Antioch who had followed him as far as Litarbae
in the attempt to conciliate his displeasure.t This
is his last extant letter.
For his brief and fatal campaign against Sapor in
363 we depend on Ammianus and Eutropius who
accompanied him, and on Zosimus. On the march
Julian avoided Edessa, which was _ stubbornly
Christian (see Letter 40). At Carrhae, notorious
for the defeat of the Romans under Crassus,. he
assembled his troops. Procopius was sent towards
Nisibis with 18,000 men in order to distract the
attention of Sapor, and was ordered to meet the
Armenian auxiliaries whom Julian had requisitioned
in Letter 57, and later rejoin Julian. Meanwhile the
Emperor with 65,000 men proceeded to the Euphrates.
His fleet of a thousand boats of all kinds he trans-
ferred by means of a canal from the Euphrates to
the Tigris, and arrived under the walls of Ctesiphon,
devastating the country and burning towns and
villages as he went. The omens from first to last
were unfavourable, his officers were inefficient, and
the troops whom he had brought from Gaul began
1 Cf. Libanius, Oration 16. 1, and his Letter 824,
Foerster, for his attempt to persuade Julian to forgive
Antioch.
XXV
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INTRODUCTION
to suffer from the heat. Though before Ctesiphon
he won an important victory over the Persians, he
reluctantly decided not to besiege this stronghold,
but to try to effect a junction with the forces of
Procopius by marching northwards. He burnt his
ships rather than take them up the Tigris. But
Procopius and the Armenians failed to arrive, and
Sapor with his main army was at hand and began to
harass Julian’s forces from June 16. The Persians
were repulsed, but, after about ten days of almost
incessant fighting and marching, Julian was mortally .
wounded in a rear attack on June 26, and died at
midnight. On his death-bed he is said to have
discussed the immortality of the soul with Maximus
and Priscus.2_ The exact name of the place where
he fell is not known, but Ammianus 25. 3. 9, says
that when Julian learned that the locality was called
Phrygia he gave up hope of recovery, because an
oracle had said that he would die in Phrygia. His
body was carried with the army on its retreat and
was later sent to Tarsus for burial in charge of
Procopius. The Christian general Jovian was
elected Emperor by the troops.
1 On the lack οὗ. discipline among the Gallic troops,
both at Antioch and on the march, see Ammianus 22. 12;
25. 7.
2 The numerous and varying accounts of Julian’s death
from Ammianus to the Byzantine chroniclers of the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries have been collected by Reinhardt
Der Tod des Kaiser Julian, 1891. The legend that the dying
Emperor threw a handful of his own blood in the air and
cried νενίκηκας, Γαλιλαῖε, ““ Thou hast conquered, O Galilaean !”
is found in Theodoret 3. 20, Sozomen 6. 2. Others said he
was reproaching the Sun, who had betrayed him, and that
his words were misunderstood ; ef. Philostorgius 7. 15.
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INTRODUCTION
The letters of Julian must have been collected
and published before the end of the fourth century,
since Eunapius (a.p, 346-414) used them as a source
for his Hislory, and in his Lives mentions several
that are not extant. Libanius, not long after Julian’s
death, wrote to Aristophanes of Corinth that some
of Julian’s letters were safe to publish, others not,
and consoled himself for:the Emperor’s loss with
“these his immortal children.” Zosimus the pagan ,
historian, who wrote 450-501, says that from Julian’s
letters one may best comprehend his activities,
“which extended over the whole world.” The
historians of the Church, notably Socrates of Con-
stantinople, who completed his History about a.p.
440, seem to have quoted from a mixed collection
of letters and edicts such as has come down to us.
Sozomen, a contemporary of Socrates, quotes nine ot
the extant letters and mentions fourteen that have
not survived. Such a collection would be entitled
Letters because any Imperial edict was called a
letter. Julian was an indefatigable letter-writer, and
we have only a fraction of his vast correspondence.
Many letters must have been suppressed by their
owners as dangerous to themselves after his death,
or by the Christians because of their disrespectful
allusions to Christianity ; of those that survive some
were mutilated by the Christians for the same
reason, while others, such as Letter 81, To Basil, are
suspected of being Christian forgeries designed to
display Julian in an unpleasant light. On the other
-hand, documents which could be used as evidence
that Julian persecuted the Christians (e.g. Letter
37), or pastoral letters written in his character of
pontifex maximus to admonish pagan priests to
Xxvii
INTRODUCTION
imitate the Christian virtues of asceticism and
charity to the poor (e. g. Letter 20 and the Fragment
of a Letter, Vol. 2), would not be allowed to perish.
Many letters survived in hand-books as models of
epistolary style, a fact which, as Cumont pointed
out, adds greatly to the difficulties of correct ascrip-
tion, because the compilers of such hand-books were
often careless about the authorship, form of address,
or completeness of such extracts.
The “ Letters”’ in this collection are (1) edicts or
rescripts, the majority of which are concerned with
the Christians; these were certainly worked over by
the Imperial secretaries and are only indirectly
Julian’s; (2) pastoral or encyclical letters to priests ;
and (3) private correspondence. As a rule Julian
dictated to secretaries, and so fast that Libanius
says the “ tachygraphers”’ were unable to keep pace
with him, but certain postscripts are marked “ with
his own hand.”’ After his accession in 361 the plea
of lack of time or a shortage of secretaries is frequent,
and some scholars have rejected certain purely con-
ventional and sophistic letters, such as 59 and 60, or
assigned them to his student days, on the ground
that Julian after 355 would not write in that strain,
and that his undoubtedly genuine letters always
have some definite content. They never reject a
letter in which pressure of business is mentioned,
though one may see from the correspondence of
Libanius that the plea of lack of time owing to
affairs is a regular sophistic excuse. The purely
sophistie letters have been placed last in the present
volume in order that they may not interrupt the
sequence of those that can be dated with more or
less certainty. But I am not convinced that at any
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INTRODUCTION
time in Julian’s career he had renounced writing
like a sophist and bandying quotations with his
friends. Nothing could be more sophistic than part
of his unquestionably genuine letter to Libanius,
in which he expresses his admiration for his friend’s
speech on behalf of Aristophanes.1 There seems
to be only one safe criterion for rejecting letters
ascribed in the MS. tradition to Julian: when the
historical facts of his life cannot be reconciled with
the contents of a letter, or if he cannot have known
the person addressed, as is the case with the six
letters addressed to Iamblichus, or when the con-
tents are too foolish even for Julian in his sophistic
vein,” it has seemed better not to confuse the
reader by including them, as Hertlein did, with the
genuine letters. They are therefore grouped to-
gether as apocryphal. After the publication of
Hertlein’s edition, six letters, ascribed to Julian,
were discovered by Papadopoulos-Kerameus in a
convent, used as a school for Greek merchants, on
the island Chalce (Halki) near Constantinople; they
are included in this edition. The text used in this
volume is, for the rest of the letters, that of Hertlein
(Leipzig, 1876), revised and rearranged in chrono-
logical order as far as possible. The marginal num-
bers correspond to the pages of Spanheim, 1696.
The edition of Bidez and Cumont (1922) appeared
too late to be used in constructing the present text,
but is referred to in this Introduction. All references
_to Bidez or Cumont in the critical notes refer to
their publications before 1922. Their edition includes
the Latin edicts of Julian preserved in the Codex
1 See Letter 53, 382 p, p. 185.
2 Cf. Letter 80, To Sarapion.
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INTRODUCTION
Theodosianus and the Imperial edict in Greek, De
auro coronario, published by Grenfell, Hunt and
Hogarth in Fayiim towns and their Papyri, p. 116 foll.,
and assigned by those editors and by Wilcken to
Alexander Severus. Bidez and Cumont support
Dessau! in regarding this edict as by Julian, who,
as we know from an edict in Codex Theodosianus
12. 13. 1, remitted the aurum coronarium on April 29,
362. Ammianus? mentions this as an instance of
Julian’s generosity.
The following biographical notices of Julian’s more
important correspondents or of persons mentioned
in the text, are in alphabetical order and are de-
signed to supplement the notes.
Aetius of Antioch, nicknamed “ Atheist” by his
Christian opponents, rose from extreme poverty and
obscurity to the position of leader of the faction of
the Arian sect called Anomoean because its members
held that “the substance of the Son is unlike the
substance of the Father.’’ The less radical of the
unorthodox, semi-Arians, like the Emperor Con-
stantius, persecuted the Anomoeans. But Gallus
Caesar, Julian’s half-brother, soon after his promotion
in 351 and his appointment to govern the East, came
under the influence of Aetius, who, for the next three
years while he resided at Antioch, was his spiritual
adviser. When Gallus heard that Julian, then study-
ing at Ephesus with Maximus the theurgist, was
inclined to “ Hellenism,” he more than once sent
1 In Revue de Philologie, 1901. 2 25. 4. 15.
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INTRODUCTION
Aetius to admonish his younger brother, who con-
trived to reassure them both.! After the disgrace
and execution of Gallus by Constantius at the end of
354, Aetius was exiled to Phrygia by the Emperor,
partly because of his alarming influence and extreme
Arianism, partly because of his intimacy with Gallus.
Expelled from his office of deacon and repudiated by
the Arians, he was still in exile on Julian’s accession,
when he was recalled to Constantinople and treated
with peculiar favour. In spite of the title of Julian’s
letter of recall,? Aetius was not made a bishop until
the reign of Valens. After Julian’s death he retired
to an estate in Lesbos which had been given him by
Julian, but later he went to Constantinople, and in
spite of his heresy was made a bishop, though prob-
ably without a see. In the histories of the fourth-
century Church, such as those of Socrates, Sozomen
and Theodoret, he is the most important of all the
heretics and apparently the most dangerous to the
unity of the Church. Philostorgius gives a detailed
and fairly tolerant account of his varied life and great
influence, and praises his eloquence and learning,
whereas the others ridicule as superficial his study of
Aristotle, with whose logic this ex-goldsmith of
Antioch professed to have fitted himself to found a
heresy, and Newman, who intensely disliked his
heresy, calls him a mountebank.?
1 See Philostorgius 3. 27 and the letter of Gallus to Julian,
p. 288, Sozomen 5. 5 mentions Julian’s letter recalling
_ Aetius.
2 See Lelter 15 in which Julian refers to their friendship of
long standing, and Against the Galilaeans, 333d, p. 413,
where the reference may be to the Anomoean Aetius.
8 The Arians of the Fourth Century, 1833.
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INTRODUCTION
A.ypius, to whom Julian wrote Letters 6 and 7, was,
according to Ammianus 23. 1. 2, ἃ native of Antioch.
In 358 Libanius in an extant letter (324 Foerster),
congratulates him on his success as governor of
Britain—his title was Vicarius Britanniarum, an
office subordinate to the prefect of the Gallic
provinces—and reports favourably of his young son
Hierocles, who had been left at Antioch in the
sophist’s charge. * Seeck and Cumont think that —
Julian’s Letter 6 should be dated 355 or 356, and that
his summons to Alypius preceded the latter's appoint-
ment to Britain; but I agree with Geffcken that
Julian’s language implies that he had been for some
time in Gaul, and that he néeded the assistance of
Alypius for his expedition against Constantius, so
that the letter should be dated 360. As there is
nothing in Letter 7 to indicate whether Alypius was
in Britain or what was the map which he had sent
to Julian, I have not altered the traditional order of
the two letters to Alypius. If, however, Alypius was
still in Britain, Letter 7 will naturally antedate Letter
6 and will fall between 356 and 360. In that case
the illness from which Julian had lately recovered
may be the semi-asphyxiation which he himself de-
scribes in Misopogon 341 ἢ as having occurred when
he was at Paris in the winter of 358-9. We know
that Alypius was appointed by Julian in 362-3 to
superintend the rebuilding of the Temple at Jeru-
salem (Ammianus 23. 1. 2). ‘The project failed, and
Alypius returned to Antioch, where he is mentioned
in a letter from Libanius to Basil (1583 Wolf) as a
person of distinction. In 372, when the Emperor
Valens, in his panic terror of assassination, was per-
secuting right and left, Alypius was exiled on a false
ΧΧΧΙΪ
INTRODUCTION
charge of poisoning and his property confiscated
(Ammianus 29. 1. 44). Like Priscus and Libanius
he is addressed by Julian as “ brother,’ possibly, as
Asmus thinks, because they were fellow-initiates in
the Mysteries of Mithras.1 In the MSS. of Julian’s
Letters Alypius is entitled “ brother of Caesarius”’ to
distinguish him from the dwarf Alypius of Alexandria,
whose Life was written first by his friend Iamblichus
the philosopher and later by Eunapius. Caesarius
held several high offices in the fourth century, and in
the reign of Valens, when city prefect of Constantin-
ople, was imprisoned by the usurper Procopius
(Ammianus 26. 7. 4). Several letters from Libanius
to Caesarius are extant.
ArisTopHANEs of Corinth, about whose reinstate-
ment Julian wrote to Libanius when they were at
Antioch towards the end of 362 (Letter 53), was an
official of no great importance, but the detailed
account of his life which Libanius addressed to
Julian at that time (Oration 14, Vol. 2, Foerster) is
a curious record of the vicissitudes of official life in
the fourth century. Aristophanes was the son of a |
rich senator of Corinth and was educated in rhetoric
at Athens. He was involved in a ruinous lawsuit
and robbed of part of his patrimony by his brother-
in-law Eugenius, a favourite of the Emperor Constans,
and since, while Constans ruled Greece, it was useless
to oppose Eugenius, Aristophanes retired to Syria,
some time before 350. There he was appointed an
Agens in rebus, and, as a sort of Imperial courier,
travelled all over the Empire. In 357 he was
sent to Egypt with the newly-appointed prefect
1 See Dieterich, Withras-Liturgie, p. 149.
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INTRODUCTION
Parnassius. There they incautiously consulted an
astrologer. How dangerous was this proceeding
under the Empire, since it aroused suspicion of
treasonable interest in the length of the Emperor's
life or reign, may be seen from the accounts in
Ammianus of the reigns of Constantius and Valens
and their wholesale persecution of alleged conspira-
tors. After a trial at Scythopolis (Ammianus 19. 12.
10), conducted by the cruel agent of Constantius,
Paul, nicknamed “the Chain,’”’ Parnassius was exiled
in 359 or 360, while Aristophanes was tortured and
barely escaped with his life. He was condemned to
travel throughout Egypt under the escort of a soldier
and a herald, who proclaimed wherever they went
that any Egyptian whom Aristophanes had defrauded
might come forward and denounce him. Libanius,
who, like all fourth-century writers, gives the Egyp-
tians a very bad character, argues that, if even the
Egyptians could not trump up a charge against Aris-
tophanes, he was at least innocent of the charges of
peculation that had been brought against him at
Scythopolis. He was released by the death of Con-
stantius in 361. No doubt the strongest argument
that Libanius used in favour of Aristophanes was the
fact that he was a devout pagan who at his trial had
openly sworn by the gods. Libanius asked for his
protégé some office that would rehabilitate him in the
eyes of the Corinthians, and in Letler 53 Julian says
that he will confer with Libanius as to what this shall
be, but we know only that Aristophanes did receive
some office and returned to Corinth. Julian was
more interested in the eloquence of Libanius than in
the fortunes of Aristophanes. Seeck, however, in
Die Briefe des Libanius states that Julian appointed
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INTRODUCTION
Aristophanes to the highest office in Greece, the pro-
consulship of Achaea, and places him in the lists of
proconsuls for 362-3. But already in 362 Julian had
given that honour to a man of the highest character,
whom he greatly admired, Vettius Agorius Praetex-
tatus, and since we know from Zosimus 4. 3. 3 that
Praetextatus still held the office in September 364,
when he was able to persuade the Emperor Valen-
tinian not to enforce against the Greeks the edict
forbidding the nocturnal celebration of religious
rites, there is no room for Aristophanes as proconsul
of Achaea; nor is it likely that so strict a moralist
as Julian would have conceded so great a distinction
to a man for whose loose morals even Libanius felt
bound to apologise in his oration: Libanius in a
letter (758) expresses his delight at Julian’s praise
of his speech and says that it shall be published
with the Emperor’s letter ; they do occur together in
some MSS. In 364, after Julian’s death, Aristo-
phanes wrote to Libanius asking that he might see
the correspondence of Julian and Libanius. The
sophist repiied (1350 Wolf) by reproaching him with
having soon forgotten “the divine Julian,” and says
that he can send only such letters as it would be safe
to publish. It was, in fact, a dangerous time for the
friends of Julian, who were regarded with suspicion
by the Christian Emperors Valens and Valentinian,
and, for the most part, lost their offices.
Arsaces, or Arsacius, to whom is addressed Letter
_57, was king of Armenia in the reigns of Constantius
and Julian, and, since Armenia was the buffer state
1 Cumont in his edition, and Geffcken, Judianus, are silent
on this point.
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INTRODUCTION
between Rome.and Persia, he was courted by Romans
and Persians alike, whenever they were at war. In
his Oration 1. 20p, Julian describes how in the
Eastern campaign of Constantius in 337 the Ar-
menians for a time went over to the Persians.
When in 361 Constantius was about to march
against Julian, leaving his Eastern frontier insecure,
he summoned Arsaces to Caesarea in Cappadocia
and strengthened the old alliance of Rome and
Armenia by giving him in marriage Olympias, the
daughter of the prefect Ablabius, who had been
betrothed when very young to the Emperor’s de-
ceased brother Constans (Ammianus 20.11). Athan-
asius reckoned it among the impieties of the Arian
Constantius that he had “given over to the bar-
barians”” one who had been all but a Roman
Empress. Constantius immediately on his accession
had put to death the prefect Ablabius, the low-born
favourite of Constantine whose ambitious career and
violent end are related in the Lives of Eunapius;
he now disposed of Ablabius’ daughter as he had
disposed of his own two sisters, giving one to
Gallus and the other to Julian in order to secure
their loyalty when they were promoted to the
Caesarship. Arsaces remained faithful to Rome and
so lost his kingdom and his life to the Persians
(Ammianus 27. 12), but his failure to arrive with
his auxiliaries to aid Julian at Ctesiphon contributed
to the breakdown of the campaign (Ammianus 24. 7).
Letter 57 is bracketed by Hertlein as spurious and
rejected by all modern editors on account of its
bombastic style, and its authenticity is dubious. But
it was cited by Sozomen 6. 2, in the fifth century,
and, if a forgery, was forged early enough to take
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INTRODUCTION
him in. He criticises its “unbounded arrogance ”’
and speaks of its “blasphemies against Christ ”;
since these are not in Letier 57 he may have seen a
somewhat different version. As for the style, since
Arsaces was a Christian and a barbarian, Julian may
have thought that threats would serve him better
than cajoleries, and in any case we cannot tell in
what language he or his secretaries might see fit to
address a ruler who owed his throne to the Romans
and might be suspected of intending treachery in
the coming campaign. Accordingly, though its
authorship is doubtful, I have not placed this letter
with the apoctypha.
Artemtvs, military governor of Egypt (Dua Aegypii)
in 361, is mentioned, though not named, by Julian
in Letter 21, To the Alexandrians. He was in
high favour with the Emperor Constantius and
an ardent Christian. In Alexandria he was hated
by the pagans because he despoiled the temples,
especially the famous Serapeum, the shrine of
Serapis, and not less by the orthodox Christians
for his support of the Arian Bishop George. In
362 Julian summoned him to Antioch, deprived
him of his office, and had him beheaded on October
20, 362, a day that was consecrated by the Church
to his memory as a saint and martyr. There were
several reasons why Julian detested Artemius. He
was a friend of Constantius, had been foremost in
suppressing the pagan cults, and was supposed to
_ have been accessory to the murder of Gallus Caesar,
though this last charge Artemius denied. The
fullest account of his defiance of Julian at Antioch,
his religious controversy with the Emperor, his
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INTRODUCTION
tortures and death, was preserved by the late
fourth-century historian of the Church, Philostor-
gius (pp. 151-176, Bidez). Ammianus is strangely
in error when he says (22, 11. 3) that the news of
the death of Artemius was the signal at Alexandria
for the outbreak of the populace which resulted in
the murder of Bishop George, whose oppression of
the citizens Artemius had supported with his troops
(Sozomen 4. 30), Ammianus was at Antioch and
must have known the date of the death of Arte-
mius; he should also have known that George was
murdered nearly a year earlier, in December 361,
when the death of Constantius was announced.
Artemius, according to Philostorgius, was one of
those who resisted Julian’s blanda persecutio of bribes
and eloquent arguments to which so many suc-
cumbed, and this accounts for the fact that he was
not punished till some time after Julian’s accession.
Ararsius! to whom the Emperor Julian wrote
Letter 37 telling him not to persecute the Gali-
laeans, but to prefer the god-fearing, z.e. the pagans,
was a native of Ancyra and himself a pagan. At
that time, 362, he was governing the province of
the Euphrates with the title Praeses Euphratensis.
The letter as we have it is abrupt and is probably
a fragment of a longer letter or edict, often quoted
no doubt by the Christians as evidence of their
persecution and exclusion from office in Julian’s
reign. On the general question of Julian’s treat-
1 Hertlein prefers Artabius; both forms occur in the MSS.,
and in Codex Justinianus 11. 70, 1, an edict of Julian on
buildings erected on state lands, is ‘addressed to Atarbinus,
possibly the same official.
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INTRODUCTION
ment of Christian officials or candidates for office
the historians of the Church give divergent accounts,
but Socrates 3. 13. 2 and Sozomen 5. 18 say that
he would not appoint them to govern provinces, on
the ground that their law forbade them to inflict
capital punishment. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 7,
says that Julian bribed the Christians to sacrifice
to the gods by promising them appointments, and
Jerome says that many could not resist this blanda
persecutio. In 362-363 Libanius wrote several letters,
which are extant, to Atarbius, and especially in Letter
741, Foerster, praised his mild administration of the
Kuphratensis. In 364, when Libanius wrote to him
Letter 1221 Wolf, Atarbius was Consularis Macedoniae.
Aruanasius, the saint and orthodox bishop of
Alexandria about whom Julian wrote Letters 24, 46
and 47, is the most notable Christian with whom
on his accession Julian had to deal. He became
bishop of Alexandria in 326 and died in 373, But
of that time he spent about twenty years away from
his see, and went into exile or hiding five times,
once under Constantine, twice under Constantius,
who supported the Arian heresy of which Athana-
sius was the determined opponent, once under
Julian, and finally for four months under the Arian
Emperor Valens in 367. With the death of Valens
the Arians lost practically all their influence and
the orthodox prelate had won in the end. When,
in 362, Julian proclaimed an amnesty for the non-
_ Arian ecclesiastics who had been persecuted by
Constantius, Athanasius returned in February to his
see at Alexandria. His enemy, the Arian Bishop
George of Cappadocia, who then held the bishopric,
XXXix
INTRODUCTION
had been murdered on December 24, 361, when
the news of the death of Constantius became known
at Alexandria, George was obnoxious to pagans and
Athanasians alike, but though Philostorgius 7. 2
says that Athanasius incited the people to murder
George, the silence of Julian on this point and
the testimony of Socrates 3. 31 and Sozomen 3, 7
that Athanasius was innocent, indicate that the
charge was due to the malice of the Arians. Tumults
similar to that which resulted in the lynching of
George occurred elsewhere in the Empire, and the
Christian writers in their invectives against Julian
accuse him of having recalled the exiles in order
to foment the strife of the Christian sects, whose
quarrels were so bitter and unremitting that the
story of the reigns of Constantine, Constantius and
Valens is mainly that of a heated theological contro-
versy. Julian in Letter 21 rebuked the Alexandrians,
though not as severely as they deserved, for the
murder of George, and with indecent haste de-
manded for himself in Letter 23 the books of the
dead bishop, whose library he had used in the past,
perhaps in his years of retirement at Macellum in
Cappadocia; he may have wished to use them again
for his tract Against the Galilaeans, which he com-
posed at Antioch in the following winter. When
Athanasius after his return proceeded to exercise
his functions, Julian in an edict addressed to the
Alexandrians, Letter 24, banished him from Alex-
andria, and wrote a sharp rebuke to the prefect of
Egypt, Ecdicius Olympus, ordering Athanasius to
be expelled from Egypt before December 1. Ac-
cordingly, on October 23, 361, Athanasius left
Alexandria, saying, “It is but a little cloud and it
xl
INTRODUCTION
will pass” (Sozomen 5, 15). In the late autumn of
362 the Alexandrians sent to Julian at Antioch a
petition for the recall of Athanasius, but he refused
their request in a document (Letter 47) which is
partly an edict, partly a theological argument for
paganism, and contains the statement, useful for his
biographers, that he had finally renounced Chris-
tianity twelve years earlier, i.e. in 350. Athanasius
remained in hiding near Alexandria and at Memphis
until Julian’s death in 363, when he resumed his
bishopric.
Βαβι, the Great, commonly called St. Basil, was a
native of Cappadocia. He and Julian were about the
same age, and were fellow-students in Athens in
355. Basil-returned to Cappadocia in 356 and was
probably in retreat in a monastery near Caesarea,
the metropolis of Cappadocia, when Julian addressed
to him Letler 26 inviting him to the court at
Constantinople. The invitation was certainly not
accepted, but there is no proof that they did not
remain on good terms. Basil had other pagan
friends, especially the sophist Libanius, with whom
he corresponded and to whom he sent pupils from
Cappadocia. Basil became bishop of Caesarea in
370 and died in his fiftieth year in 379. There is
no good reason for doubting the genuineness of Letler
26, or for supposing that it was addressed to some
other Basil than the famous bishop. But Letter 81,
in which Julian demands from Basil a large sum
of money as a fine on Caesarea, and threatens to
punish the citizens still more severely if he is not
obeyed, is generally regarded as spurious, and
equally spurious is Basil’s defiant answer, which
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INTRODUCTION
is extant among the saint’s correspondence as Lelter
41. Even in Byzantine times both letters were
regarded as unskilful forgeries, alien to the char-
acter of the writers to whom they were ascribed.
The main argument against the authenticity of
Letter 81 is the peculiar language, which is like
nothing that we know to be Julianic. A minor point
is that he regularly calls the Danube by the name
Ister, whereas the writer of the letter does not.
Further, the silence of Gregory Nazianzen as to
the demand of money from Basil is strange in one
who had been a fellow-student of the two men at
Athens, and in his invectives against Julian would
hardly have omitted this outrage if Basil had been
involved. Moreover, the last words of Letter 81 are
said by Sozomen 5.18 to have been addressed by
Julian “to the bishops,” and he says that the bishops
made the retort which appears at the end of Basil’s
alleged reply: dvéyvws ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἔγνως" εἰ yap ἔγνως, οὐκ
ἂν κατέγνως. “ What you read you did not under-
stand. For if you had understood you would not
have condemned.” But Julian’s hostility to Caesarea
was a fact. Cappadocia as a whole was Christian,
and its capital was, as Sozomen 5. 4 says, “ Christian
to a man.” Under Constantius the citizens had
pulled down the temples of Zeus and Apollo, and
in Julian’s reign they invited martyrdom by de-
stroying the temple of Fortune, the only one that
remained. Sozomen relates their punishment by
Julian, which probably occurred while he was at
Antioch in 362-363. The city lost its complimentary
name of Caesarea, and was obliged to resume its old
name Mazaca; it was expunged from the catalogue
of cities, and its church treasures were confiscated.
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INTRODUCTION
Libanius, Oration 16, describes its fate as a warning
to the recalcitrant. That Julian was displeased with
the Cappadocians in general may be seen from the
tone of Letler 35, To Aristoxenus, whom he asked
to meet him at Tyana on his way to Antioch; nor
did he visit Caesarea the metropolis, or Macellum,
where he had spent so much of his youth. His
death probably prevented the punishment of Caesa-
rea from being fully carried out.
Ecpicius, probably called also Olympus, to whom
Julian wrote Letlers 23, 45, 46, 49, was prefect of
Egypt 362-363. ‘The letters all refer to the affairs
of Egypt. Julian commissions Ecdicius to secure
for him the library of Bishop George; scolds him
for not having taken instant action against Athan-
asius ; tells him the height of the Nile flood; and
orders him to encourage the study of music at
Alexandria. Ammianus 22. 14 says that in 362
Julian received from the prefect of Egypt a report
on the sacred bull Apis, but does not give his name.
In Codex Theodosianus 15. 1. 8, Ecdicius appears by
name and receives rescripts from Julian. As the
name of the prefect at this time appears also as
Olympus, Seeck is probably right in assuming that
he had, as was not unusual, two names, and that
either could be used. This may be the Ecdicius
who studied in Athens with Libanius in 336-340,
later corresponded with him, and sent him pupils.
On August 20, 363, Ecdicius announced to the
_ Alexandrians the death of Julian in Persia. In
informing Ecdicius about the height of the Nile
flood Julian, who was at Antioch, wrote what
Eedicius must have known. Julian took a special
xliii
INTRODUCTION
interest in the Nile flood because he had, on his
accession, ordered that the Nilometer, the measure
used to gauge its height, should be restored to the
temple of Serapis, whence it had been removed by
Constantine to a Christian church; Socrates 1. 18,
Sozomen 5. 3.
Expipius “the philosopher,” to whom is addressed
Letter 65, is not otherwise known, and the letter,
which is a purely formal type of excuse for the
brevity of the writer, was probably preserved on
that account in epistolary hand-books. It is placed
by Cumont with the spurious letters, though there
is nothing against it but its lack of content. Two
men named Elpidius attained to high office in the
fourth century, and one of them was a favourite
with Julian because he had-renounced Christianity
and become a zealous pagan. He was with Julian
at Antioch in the winter of 362 as Comes rerum
prwatarum, and Libanius, in Letter 33, written when
Julian was in Gaul in 358, says that Julian, though
younger than Elpidius, has exercised a good influence
on him, and that in his conversation Elpidius echoes
Julian’s ideas and is as anxious as Libanius himself
regarding Julian’s future. This probably alludes to
the renunciation of Christianity by Elpidius which
was to follow Julian’s accession (see, too, Libanius,
Oration 14. 35). It was to him that Libanius applied
when he grew anxious as to the fate of Aristophanes
(see Letter 758, Foerster). The other Elpidius, a
Christian, was prefect of the East in 360, and was
also at Antioch with Julian in 362. He is often
mentioned by Ammianus and Libanius. Neither of
these men could correctly be called a philosopher,
xliv
INTRODUCTION
but it is possible that Julian might so address the
former, who was among his intimates.
Eustatuius, to whom Julian addressed Lellers
43 and 44, was a Neo-Platonic philosopher but
apparently not a miracle-worker of the type of
Maximus. He was a distinguished orator, and in
358 was sent by Constantius on an embassy to the
Persian king Sapor, having been chosen for this
mission, says Ammanius 17. 5, μέ opifex suadendi,
His extraordinary, though short-lived, influence over
Sapor is described by Eunapius (pp. 393-399, Wright).
He marivied Sosipatra the clairvoyant, whose mira-
culous childhood under the tutelage of Chaldaean
thaumaturgists is related by Eunapius. Eustathius
had poor health and died soon after Julian had
given him permission to return to his native Cappa-
docia. His widow continued her teaching, and
their son Antoninus had a distinguished career as
a priest and teacher in Egypt, where his prediction
of the destruction of the temples came to rank as
an oracle (Eunapius, Lives, pp. 415-425). The letter
of Eustathius, p. 291, in which he describes his
comfortable journey, appeared in the editions of
Martin, Estienne and Hertlein with the wrong title,
To Libanius. Cumont restored the correct title
from .Parisinus 963. It has accordingly been placed
in this volume with the apocryphal letters. Eusta-
thius was a kinsman of the philosopher Aedesius,
and when the latter migrated to Pergamon he left
his interests in Cappadocia in charge of Eustathius.
Libanius and Basil corresponded with Eustathius,
and in Letter 123, written in 359, Libanius calls him
“the most renowned of philosophers.”
xlv
INTRODUCTION
Evutuerius, to whom Julian wrote Leiter 10
announcing his safety and his desire that the other
should join him in Constantinople, is otherwise
known from the account of his life in Ammianus
16. 7. He was an Armenian, a eunuch of unusual
virtue and intellectual attainments, who had been
kidnapped and sold to some Roman merchants, rose
to a position at Court, became adviser to Constans,
and later high chamberlain to Julian when the
latter was made Caesar. Eutherius went with Julian
to Gaul as his trusted adviser, and had the courage
to reprove his master for that un-Roman levity of
character which Ammianus says he had acquired by
his residence in Asia, Eutherius was sent by Julian
to the Court at Milan in 356 to counteract the plots
of Marcellus, his late master of horse, and. he suc-
cessfully defended the loyalty of Julian before
Constantius; again in 360 Julian sent him to Con-
stantius with the letters in which he sought to
justify bis action in accepting the title of Augustus
from the army in Gaul. After Julian’s death,
Eutherius, who was a pagan, retired to Rome, where
he spent his old age respected by all. Ammianus
says that though he has ransacked history he can
find no eunuch who in wisdom and accomplishments
can be compared with Eutherius. He must have
possessed extraordinary tact to have been loved by
Constantius, though he was a pagan, and by Julian,
though he was the favourite of Constantius.
Evaerius, the rhetorician to whom Julian wrote
Letter 25, making him the present of a small estate
in Bithynia, is otherwise unknown, though he is
possibly to be identified with the man of that name
xlvi
INTRODUCTION
who joined Julian at Nish in the autumn of 361
(Letler 8, To Maximus). Neither the Comes rerum
privatarum under Constantius, whom Julian banished
on his accession (Ammianus 22. 3. 7), nor the friend
of Libanius who appears in his correspondence and
in that of St. Basil, is likely to have received this
gift from Julian, but we know nothing definite on
this point. Julian tells us in his Leller to the
Athenians, Vol. 2, 2738, that Constantius had kept
all his father’s property, so that he had the use only
of his mother’s estate before he was made Caesar.
On the other hand we have the statement of
Eunapius (Lives, p. 428, Wright), that there was
at the disposal of Julian when a student, “ample
and abundant wealth from every source.” In_ his
fragmentary Letter to a Priest (Vol. 2, 290p), Julian
says that his grandmother’s estate was taken from
him for a time only, and boasts of his own generosity
in giving when he had little to spare. The date
when he gave the small country-place to Evagrius
cannot be precisely determined. In the absence of
direct evidence I have dated it shortly after his
accession ; so, too, Schwarz. Cumont places it first
in his edition and thinks that it was written from
Gaul before 358. In favour of his view is Libanius,
Leiter 369 (Foerster), written to Julian in Gaul, in
which he praises his generosity in having given to
his friends houses, slaves, lands and money. On the
other hand, it is equally likely that the estate which
Julian’s uncle, Count Julian, asked for too late in
_ the summer of 362, was this very estate in Bithynia,
and that it had been recently given to Evagrius.
Hecepo.ius was a time-serving sophist who taught
xl vii
INTRODUCTION
Julian rhetoric when he was at Constantinople as
a boy in 342. In all editions earlier than Bidez and
Cumont, two letters are entitled 70 Hecebolius,
namely those numbered 40 and 63 in this volume.
The first of these is almost certainly not addressed
to Julian’s old teacher, who had now changed from
Christianity to Hellenism, but to some official at
Edessa. Cumont entitles it 70 the people of Edessa.
Letter 63, rejected by Schwarz, Cumont and Geffcken
because of its flowery style and lack of serious
content, contains Julianic phrases and is just such a
letter as one would expect an Imperial sophist to
write to a sophist. Socrates 3. 1 says that He-
cebolius taught Julian, and in 3, 13 describes his
shamelessness in changing his religion three times
in order to win Imperial favour. Libanius, Oration
18, calls Hecebolius a rascally sophist, but does not
mention his name, perhaps because he was writing
after Julian’s death, when it was not safe to attack
openly one who had just become reconverted to
Christianity.
Him_ertivus, to whom is addressed Letter 69, cannot
be identified with certainty ; but at any rate we may
be sure that he is not the famous Bithynian sophist
whom Julian invited to join him at Antioch in 362,
since the reference to the family of the widower
with whom the writer of Letter 69 condoles does not
suit what we know of the sophist’s private life from
his own extant works. Since two MSS. give Julian’s
correspondent the title “ Prefect of Egypt,” Cumont
identifies him with the Himerius whom we know,
from the letters of Libanius, as the father of Iam-
blichus Il; he was the son (or son-in-law?) of the
xl viii
INTRODUCTION
more famous Iamblichus, the philosopher. From
Libanius we learn (Letter 573) that this Himerius
was an Official of some sort, and we know that he
died before 357. In that case Julian, if he wrote
this letter to him, did so in his student days or from
Gaul, after he became Caesar. Cumont suspects its
genuineness. The difficulty about this identification
of Himerius, son of Iamblichus, with the prefect of
the MS. tradition is that we know of no prefect of
Egypt of that name, and it does not occur in the
list of prefects from 328 a.p. Schenkl therefore
suggests (in Itheim. Mus. 72) that the real title may
be To Hierius, since there was an Egyptian prefect
of that name in 364, who succeeded Ecdicius Olympus.
Hierius was not appointed until after Julian’s death,
but the title may have been added to the letter
after he had received the office. The letter is in
Julian’s manner, and there are no good grounds for
rejecting it. The name of Julian’s correspondent
appears in the MSS. in various forms, as Amerius
(retained by Hertlein), Hemerius, and Himerius.
(See under Sopater.)
Iampiicnus of Chalcis in Coele-Syria, a pupil of
Porphyry, was the chief exponent of the Syrian
school of Neo-Platonism in the first half of the
fourth century. His Life was written by Eunapius
(pp. 363-373, Wright), who shows him performing
feats of magic, but reluctantly, at the instance of
his disciples. The six letters to him which were
ascribed to Julian in the MSS. tradition, namely
74-79 of this edition, cannot have been written by
the Emperor, who was a mere child when Iamblichus
died in the latter part of the reign of Constantine
xlix
d
INTRODUCTION
and was succeeded in his school by Aedesius. The
letters are therefore either forgeries or were written
by some other admirer of Iamblichus whose name
may have been Julian. Their writer seems to have
marched with the Emperor from Pannonia to the
Dardanelles in 323 when the Emperor was proceed-
ing to Nicomedia in pursuit of Licinius, and he
dwells on the hardships he had endured in war,
sieges, and other dangers. Cumont in his edition
(1922), as in 1889 (Sur [’ authenticité de quelques lettres de
Julien), though less confidently, ascribes these letters
to the sophist Julian of Caesarea, who taught rhetoric
at Athens down to 340 a.p., when he was succeeded
by Prohaeresius; but he fails to account for the
silence of Eunapius in his Life of Julian of Caesarea
(pp. 467-477, Wright) as to any such experiences as
are alluded to in these letters. Nor does Eunapius
indicate that Julian of Caesarea, who left no writings,
was interested in philosophy as well as rhetoric;
rather he shows us a typical teacher of rhetoric at
Athens whose glory was that he had trained the
famous Christian sophist Prohaeresius, and had
triumphed over the jealousies of his rivals, the other
Athenian sophists. The theory that this group of
letters was addressed by the Emperor Julian to
the younger Iamblichus, the famous philosopher’s
grandson, who with his father Himerius and _ his
uncle Sopater are known to us chiefly from the
correspondence of Libanius, is untenable. Iam-
blichus II, though he was a philosopher and is
mentioned with admiration by the Emperor Julian
in Letter 2, was not distinguished enough to account
for the servile flattery expressed in these letters;
and the writer, if he had been addressing the grand-
]
INTRODUCTION
son, would hardly have failed to mention his famous
grandfather. Moreover, the events alluded to are
irreconcilable with what we know of Julian’s life.
There are in these six letters certain parallels of
thought and language which favour the theory that
they are by one man; but there are also similarities
with the genuine works of Julian, and such parallels
cannot be safely counted as evidence either of
forgery or of Julianic authorship; they are more
probably the common epistolary mannerisms of the
fourth century.
Juttan, the Emperor Julian’s uncle, brother of
his mother Basilina, and son of Julius Julianus, to
whom are addressed Let/ers 9 and 29, was persuaded
by his nephew, after the death of Constantius, to
renounce Christianity and to devote himself to the
restoration of the Hellenic religion. This he did
with such zeal that he became peculiarly odious
to the Christians, especially in the East, where he
resided at Antioch as Comes Orientis (Count of the
East). There he died of a painful illness during
Julian’s visit to Antioch in 362-363. Sozomen 5. 8,
Theodoret 3. 12, and Philostorgius 7. 10 recount his
persecutions of the Christians and his terrible end.
In Letter 29 the Emperor Julian directs his uncle,
who had preceded him to Antioch, to restore the
columns of the famous temple of Apollo in the
suburb of Daphne; that this was done, and that
the sight of the colonnade irritated the Christians,
may be gathered from Ammianus 22. 13. The
temple was burned down on October 22, 362, while
the Emperor was in residence at Antioch, and the
Emperor suspected that this was Christian vengeance,
li
d 2
INTRODUCTION
partly for the removal of the bones of St. Babylas
from Daphne, partly for the rebuilding of the
colonnade. Count Julian’s nephew mentions his
death in Vol. 2, Misopogon 365c, and praises his
administration. He was a correspondent of Libanius,
and we have the letter of congratulation, 701,
Foerster, sent to him by the sophist when the
Emperor appointed him Count of the East in 362.
Lisanius of Antioch, the famous teacher whose
speeches Julian studied at Nicomedia in 344-345,
and to whom he wrote many letters (of which only
three, 52, 53 and 58, survive), has left more works,
chiefly rhetorical, than any other sophist of his time.
His Life by Eunapius is in some respects disparaging
(see Eunapius, Lives, Wright, pp. 333-336), and we
can best judge of his career from his own letters,
more than 1600 of which are extant, and his numerous
orations. He was born in 314, and may have survived
as late as 395. From his works may be gathered
many details about the officials of the fourth century
and the conditions of education, He corresponded
with Christians and pagans alike, but the death of
Julian was a severe blow to his hopes for the future
of Hellenic studies, which. he lived to see on the
decline, giving place to Latin and Roman law. He
himself knew no Latin, and was chagrined when a
school of Latin was founded at Antioch in order
that students might not have to go to Rome to
learn the language. Libanius was with Julian at
Antioch in the winter of 362-363, and two of the
extant letters to him from Julian were written at
that time; the third, 58, is Julian’s last extant letter
and was written when the Emperor was at Hierapolis
lii
INTRODUCTION
on his way to Persia, in March 363. Hertlein, like
all earlier editors, published four letters to Libanius,
but Cumont (Recherches) has shown that Hertlein 74
and 14 are one letter, and they are so arranged in
this volume as Lefter 53. We have the answer of
Libanius (760, Foerster) to Letter 52, and his answer
(758, Foerster) to Letter 53. Libanius’ Monody on
the temple of Apollo at Daphne, after it had been
destroyed in 362 by fire, and his Orations, namely
12, To Julian, delivered in January 363; 13, To
Julian, welcoming him to Antioch in 362; 14, For
- Aristophanes; 15, To Julian, on behalf of Antioch,
after the Emperor had left the city in 363 declaring
that he would not return; 17, the Monody on Julian,
which was published almost two years after Julian’s
death ; 18, the Epitaph on Julian, published probably
in 364; and 24, On Avenging Julian, addressed to the
Emperor Theodosius, are invaluable documents for
the attitude of a cultured pagan to Julian’s restora-
tion of Hellenism, and for his life and reign. We
depend the more on these orations and the letters
of Libanius, because the History of Eunapius, which
was in great part devoted to Julian, exists only in
a few fragments. To the enthusiasm of Libanius
the Christian fathers, such as Socrates, Sozomen,
Philostorgius, Theodoret and, most embittered of
all, Julian’s fellow-student, Gregory Nazianzen,
opposed their accounts of his persecution of the
Chureh and their criticisms of his character and
motives. Both estimates of Julian may be corrected
_ by the moderate and impartial account of one who
was no sophist, and who, though a pagan, was
apparently little influenced by desire for a Hellenic
restoration, the Latin historian Ammianus Marcel-
liii
INTRODUCTION
linus. Socrates 3.1 is the authority for the state-
ment that Constantius, when he sent Julian, then
a boy, to Nicomedia, expressly forbade him to
attend the lectures of the pagan Libanius.
Maximus of Ephesus, whose Life was written by
Eunapius (Lives, pp. 431-461, 543-545, Wright), had
obtained great influence over Julian in the latter’s
student days, when he first, as Eunapius relates,
studied with Aedesius at Pergamon, but on hearing
of the miraculous communications with the unseen
powers of the theurgist Maximus, the pupil ὁ:
Aedesius, proceeded to join him at Ephesus. In
Letter 8, written soon after the death of Constantius,
Julian invited Maximus to his Court, and in spite
of the unfavourable omens described by Eunapius
in his Life of Maximus, pp. 441-445, omens which
prevented the more cautious Chrysanthius from
obeying Julian’s summons, Maximus joined him at
Constantinople early in 362. This pseudo-philosopher
remained with Julian, and was present at his death-
bed. On his return from Persia, Maximus, who had
many enemies, paid the penalty of the arrogance
and display in which Julian had allowed him to
indulge, and after various ups and downs of fortune
was executed at Ephesus under the Emperor Valens
in 371 on the charge of having been concerned in
a conspiracy against the Emperor (Ammianus 29. 1 ;
_ Zosimus 4. 15). Maximus seems to have initiated
Julian into the Mysteries of Mithras, and Julian was
wholly in sympathy with the theurgy of this clever
charlatan. Of the three extant letters entitled
To Maximus, Letters 12 and 59 are rejected by
Geffcken for their sophistic style, and Cumont in
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INTRODUCTION
his edition places them with the “spurious or
doubtful” letters. But there is nothing in them
that Julian might not have written, and one rather
uncommon illustration in 59, the Celtic test of the
legitimacy of children, was used by Julian in
Oration 2, 81 ν, and is probably reflected from his
experience in Gaul. There is no evidence for the
date of Letter 59, but it is not unlikely that Julian
was writing to his teacher from Gaul, and there-
fore used this illustration while it was fresh in his
mind.
Ni.us Dionysius, to whom Julian addressed Leiter
50, is not otherwise known, unless he is to be
identified with the Roman senator of whom Libanius
says in Oration 18. 198 that Julian punished his
impudence by a letter, when he might have con-
fiscated his property. There is also ἃ possible
reference to Nilus in Libanius, Leffer 758, Foerster,
To Julian, where Libanius says that while he and
Aristophanes were waiting for Julian’s decision (see
under Aristophanes), they feared that Julian might
inflict on Aristophanes τὸ Νείλου κακόν, “the punish-
ment of Nilus”’(?). Both these references are un-
certain, though Asmus, Geffeken and Cumont relate
them to Julian’s letter 70 Nilus. We know only
what can be gathered from Julian, namely, that
Nilus was a senator (4464) of dubious morals, who
had been recommended to the Emperor by one
Symmachus; Julian, in a lost letter, had invited
him to Court with the intention of giving him an
office, but Nilus, who was perhaps a Christian,
though Julian does not say so, held back until he
received a second and more peremptory summons,
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INTRODUCTION
which is also lost. Nilus certainly came to Antioch
and was snubbed by the Emperor (446.8), and later
wrote to him to excuse himself for his silence (443 c)
and to say that he would come if again invited. In
his answer to this communication Julian descends
to personal invective of the sort that he used in his
Oration 7, Against the Cynic Heraclius, but :there is
nothing to prove that Nilus himself was, as Asmus
thinks, a Cynic. Nilus had irritated Julian by
praising Alexander (a favourite commonplace of
Julian’s own, though in this case he found some-
thing disparaging to himself), had praised Constans
and Magnentius (446), and had asked for a reply
(4468). Erudition is always in place in a Greek
or Roman invective, and so Julian’s innuendoes
against the character and career of Nilus are inter-
woven with allusions to the historians of Alexander,
to Phaedo of Elis (for whose Simon see Wilamowitz
in Hermes 14), Demosthenes, Philostratus, Babrius
and other authors. Asmus in Philologus 71 maintains
that in Letter 50 we have a contamination of two
letters, and that one was written in December 361,
the other at the end of 362. But though the
arrangement of the letter is strange (for example,
five paragraphs begin with the word ἀλλά), we can-
not, in our ignorance of the circumstances, and of
Julian’s real grievance, attempt to rewrite it. We
are not even sure as to the man’s name. Julian
calls him “ Dionysius” (444p, 4458), and in some
MSS. alludes to him as “ Nilus” (444 5) ; Laurentianus
58 has the title Against Nilus, while the earliest
editor Rigalt and all others before Cumont entitled
the letter Zo Dionysius because of Julian’s use of
the name in the letter.
lvi
INTRODUCTION
Oriaasius, the physician to whom is addressed
Letter 4, was, next to Galen, the most important
medical writer of the Graeco-Roman period. He is
the faithful friend of whom Julian speaks in his
Letter to the Athenians 277c, and he was with Julian
in Gaul and at Antioch. According to Eunapius,
who wrote his Life (pp. 533-537, Wright), he was
suspected of having been Julian’s accomplice in
his rebellion against Constantius. Julian sent him
to Delphi to revive the oracle of Apollo there,
and received the famous response, preserved by
Cedrenus :
“Tell the king, on earth has fallen the glorious
dwelling,
And the water-springs that spake are quenched
and dead.
Not a cell is left the god, no roof, no cover,
In his hand the prophet laurel flowers no more.’ ἢ
Eunapius in his History, frag. 24, says that Oribasius
admonished Julian to use more self-control when
he was angry, to which Julian replied that the
advice was good and would not be needed a second
time. When they were in Gaul Julian requested
him to compile an epitome of the works of Galen,
and later he expanded the work into an Encyclo-
paedia of Medicine in 70 Books, This also, as
Oribasius says in his Introduction, was done at
1 Swinburne’s translation, in The Last Oracle, of the Greek
- text:
Εἴπατε τῷ βασιλῆι χαμαὶ πέσε Saldadros αὐλά.
οὐκέτι Φοῖβος ἔχει καλύβαν, οὐ μάντιδα δάφνην,
ov παγὰν λαλέουσαν' ἀπέσβετο καὶ λάλον ὕδωρ.
lvii
INTRODUCTION
Julian’s wish. This work, entitled Ἰατρικαὶ ovvayw-
yai, of which only about half survives, was published
in 1808 by Matthaei (Moscow) with considerable
omissions, and, complete as far as it survives, by
Bussemaker-Daremberg, Paris, 1851, with a French
translation. Oribasius was a pagan, but his son
Eustathius, to whom he bequeathed his medical
writings, was a. Christian and a friend and corre-
spondent of St. Basil. Eunapius relates that after
Julian’s death Oribasius was exiled “ among the most
savage barbarians” by the Christian Emperors. At
the courts of “the barbarians” he rose to great
renown and was worshipped like a god because of
his wonderful cures. He was therefore permitted
to return, and recovered his fortune and position.
Suidas says that he was born at Sardis, but probably
Eunapius, who gives his birthplace as Pergamon, was
better informed. He was, showever, practising at
Sardis, no doubt after his exile, when Eunapius
wrote his Life and described his skilful treatment
of the aged Chrysanthius.
Priscus, whom Eunapius calls “ the Thesprotian or
Molossian,’’ was born about 305 and died in 395 when
Alaric invaded Greece. His Life was written by
Eunapius (Lives, pp. 461-465, Wright). Julian made
his acquaintance when he studied at Pergamon, and
on ‘his accession summoned him to his Court, and
he accompanied the Emperor to Persia. On his
return to Antioch in 363, Priscus, like other friends
of Julian, fell under the suspicion of Valens and
Valentinian, but was acquitted and dismissed with
honour to Greece, where he continued to teach for
another thirty years. He was evidently not con-
lviii
INTRODUCTION
sidered as dangerous as Maximus by the Christian
Emperors, was probably not a theurgist, and was
therefore free from the charge of practising magic.
He was a correspondent of Libanius. Julian wrote
to him Letters 1, 2, and 5, all from Gaul, encouraging
Priscus to visit him there, but there is no evidence
that the visit was paid. Libanius, Oration 14, 32,
implies that towards the end of 362 Priscus was
with Julian and Maximus at Antioch, though in
Letter 52 Julian complains to Libanius that Priscus
has not yet arrived. As all three men were living
at Antioch at the time, we cannot lay any stress on
this remark, which may refer to a temporary absence
of Priscus. Priscus had a wife Hippia, and children.
Eunapius says that his bearing was “ deliberate
and lofty,’ and that he had secretive manners and
sneered at human weakness, in contrast with his
teacher, the expansive and democratic Aedesius.
ProuarreEsius, to whom is addressed Letter 14, was
an Armenian sophist who succeeded Julian of
Caesarea in. the chair of rhetoric at Athens and
taught there for many years. Probably the Emperor
Julian studied with him at Athens in 355. When
Eunapius went to study at Athens in 362, Prohae-
resius was already eighty-seven and had overcome
his rivals, whose persecutions of this too successful
teacher Eunapius describes. Earlier in his career
he had been sent by the Emperor Constans to Rome
to display his eloquence and was there honoured
with a bronze statue. When Julian issued his
notorious decree forbidding Christians to teach the
classics, he made a special exception in favour of
Prohaeresius, who, however, refused to benefit by
lix
INTRODUCTION
the exemption. Eunapius tells a curious story to the
effect that this Christian sophist consulted the pagan
hierophant of Greece in order to find out indirectly
whether Julian’s reign would last much longer, and
when the hierophant’s answer implied that it would
not, “ Prohaeresius took courage.”” This was the sort
of conduct that later under Valens cost Maximus of
Ephesus his head, but apparently under Julian one
could forecast the future with impunity. According
to Eunapius, Prohaeresius died in 367, at the age of
ninety-two, and he seems to have taught to the last,
for the edict of Julian can hardly have “shut him
out from the field of education” (Eunapius, p. 513,
Wright) for more than a few months, if at all.
SopaTer (or Sosipater),1 to whom is addressed
Letter 61, cannot be identified with certainty, but,
if the letter is Julian’s, he is not the famous Sopater,
the disciple of lamblichus I, whose violent death in
the reign of Constantine is related by Eunapius in
his Lives. If Schwarz, Geffecken and Cumont are
right in rejecting Letter 61, chiefly because of the
reference to the writer's children (Julian was child-
less), it may belong to the same period as the six
letters to Iamblichus and have been written to
Sopater I before 337 ; but this is impossible to decide.
Sopater II, who is mentioned by Julian as his host at
Hierapolis in March 363 (Letter 58, 401 c, a corrupt
passage), and as having resisted the efforts of Gallus
and Constantius to convert him to Christianity, is
1 Yor the variation in the spelling of the name see Acts
20. 4; Sopater of Beroea, Paul’s kinsman, who accompanied
him to Asia, is called, in some MSS., Sosipater ; cf. Romans,
16. 21. :
Ix
INTRODUCTION
perhaps the son (or son-in-law?) of Sopater I, who
is mentioned by the writer of Letter 78, 418.
Julian, however, calls him a κηδεστὴς of Sopater I,
a vague word which may mean “son-in-law” or
even “relative”; the passage is mutilated.
Tueoporus, to whom Julian wrote Letter 16
rejoicing in his safety, and 20 appointing him
high-priest “of all the temples in Asia,’ was not
necessarily a priest, as the office of high-priest was
often given to rich laymen; the high-priest presided
ex officio over the public games and the provincial
assemblies. We know of Theodorus only from these
letters of Julian. In Letter 20 he speaks of the
teacher they had had in common, probably Maximus
of Ephesus, and the word used, καθηγεμών, may
indicate that Maximus had initiated Theodorus as
well as Julian into the Mysteries of Mithras.
Theodorus was certainly a philosopher, and as Neo-
Platonism was, under Julian, the religion of the
State, he was doubtless a Néo-Platonist of the
Syrian school. Julian writes to him with great
deference, though he never forgets in a pastoral
letter that as Emperor he is Pontifex Maximus in-
1 The Sopater who is mentioned in the six spurious Leéters
to Iamblichus is almost certainly Sopater I. Wilhelm, in
Rhein. Mus. 72, assigns to Sopater I the letter, partly pre-
served by Stobaeus 4, p. 212, to Hemerius (or Himerius)
from his brother Sopater, a typical sophistic sermon on the
ideal ruler to one in high office, a λόγος παραινετικός. Others
assign this work to Sopater II of Apamea, who, as we know
from the correspondence of Libanius, died about 264, and
is not known to have left any writings. In Letter 1448
Libanius tells Sopater II that he has shown the latter’s
letter to a friend, whose comment was that Sopater was
imitating his distinguished father.
lxi
INTRODUCTION
structing a trusted subordinate in the duties of
priests. Letter 16 is one of the six letters discovered
on Chalce (Halki) in 1885 by Papadopoulos. It
has been rejected by Schwarz and Geffcken on
account of the difficulty found by all commentators
in explaining the allusion in it to a quarrel between
Julian (reading ἡμᾶς with the MSS.) or Theodorus
(reading ὑμᾶς with Maas) and the proconsul of
Achaea, for which incident there is no other
evidence. We do not expect to find Theodorus
concerned with the affairs of Greece, as his interests
were evidently in Asia; nor do we know of any
trouble between Julian and the proconsul. Asmus,
by altering the text to read “ruler of the Helles-
pont” (Ἑλλησπόντου for “Ἔλλάδος), tries to localise in
Asia the quarrel referred to. The letter is decidedly
Julianic in manner, and its genuineness is defended
by Asmus in Philologus 72. Letter 20, together with
the fragment of a letter 70 a Priest (Vol. 2, pp. 297—
339), is important as evidence of Julian’s desire, at
which the Christiafii fathers scoffed, to introduce
among the pagans certain reforms in the lives of
the priests and in the treatment of the poor and of
strangers, based on his experience of the charities
and the aceticism of the Christian Church. Cumont,
following Asmus, regards Letter 20 (89 in his edition)
as an integral part of the fragment 70 a Priest
(Vol. 2, Wright), and accordingly includes that
fragment in his edition as 89b. But the similarities
between Letter 20 and the fragment in Vol. 2
amount to unnecessary repetition if they occur in
one letter, and it is certainly implied in Leiter 20
that Julian and Theodorus have not yet met, whereas
the fragment To a Priest, which mentions Julian’s
lxii
INTRODUCTION
design to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem, probably,
though not certainly, should be dated later, while
the Emperor was in residence at Antioch. That that
fragment is addressed to Theodorus, rather than to
some other priest whose aid Julian had enlisted in
his reforms, cannot be proved, and on the whole
seems to me unlikely in view of their very similar
contents and the tone of 298 Β, where καθηγεμὼν is
apparently used of a superior official or priest—
perhaps Theodorus, who had reported favourably to
Julian about the person addressed. On the other
hand, the reference may be to Maximus, as in
Letter 20.
Zeno, the physician and professor of medicine at
Alexandria, to whom Julian wrote Letter 17, was
driven from Alexandria by Bishop George in 360
for reasons unknown, and at the request of the
Alexandrians was recalled to his previous dignity
of chief physician or head of the medical faculty,
dpxiatpos, by Julian on his accession. He was
famous as a teacher. Libanius in Letter 171, written
359-360, condoles with him on his exile and hints
at a coming change for the better, by which he
must have meant the rise of Julian to power.
Libanius says that though they have never met he
owes much to the skill of Zeno’s pupils, some of
whom had evidently tried to cure his chronic head-
ache. Cumont, following Boissonade, identifies Zeno
of Alexandria with another famous teacher of
medicine, Zeno of Cyprus, the “healing sophist,”’
~whose Life by Eunapius is extant.! But Eunapius
1 See Eunapius, Lives of the Sophists, Wright, pp. 336,
529-531.
)xiii
INTRODUCTION
does not say that this Zeno practised at Alexandria.
He had been the teacher of Julian’s friend the
physician Oribasius, and Eunapius says that he lived
* down to the time of Julian the sophist,’’ ὁ. e. Julian
of Caesarea, who died at Athens in 340. It appears,
therefore, that Zeno of Cyprus can hardly have been
alive in 361. Moreover, Julian would not have
failed to mention Zeno’s oratorical talent if he had
been addressing the teacher of Oribasius. The
Alexandrian is, therefore, almost certainly another
and a younger man.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
MANUSCRIPTS :
The Letters.—The oldest MS. of the Letters is
Ambrosianus B 4 Milan, tenth century (23 letters) ;
Vossianus 77, Leyden, thirteenth century (27 letters),
though much mutilated and damaged, is the most
important ; Laurentianus 58, fifteenth century, has
the largest collection of letters; other MSS, are
Baroccianus, Oxford, fourteenth century, Varsaviensis,
Warsaw, fifteenth century, Monacensis 490, Munich,
fifteenth century, Oltobonianus, Rome, sixteenth
century, Harleianus 5610, British Museum, four-
teenth century. Six letters that occur in no other
MS. were discovered in fragments of two fifteenth-
century MSS. in a convent on the island Chalce
(Halki) near Constantinople in 1885 by Papado-
poulos-Kerameus, and were published in ὃ ἐν
Κωνσταντινουπόλει Ἑλληνικὸς dtAoAoyiKds σύλλογος
16, Appendix, 1885, in Fheinisches Museum 42, 1887
lxiv .
INTRODUCTION
(with Buecheler’s notes), and in Rivista Filologia 17,
1889 (by Largajolli e Parisio, with an Italian transla-
tion). The fragmentary MSS. in which alone these
letters have-survived are known as Chalceni, or X
and Y, or X and Xa; they contain also 22 other
Julianic letters and the two fragg. have almost the
same contents. Studies in the text are: Klimek,
Conjectanea in Julianum, Wratislaw, 1883, and in
Hermes 1886; Zu Wirdigung der Handschriften Juli-
ant, 1891; Cobet in Mnemosyne 1882 ; Weil (on the
Papadopoulos letters) in Revue de Philologie, 1886 ;
Asmus in Philologus 61, 71, 72, and in Archiv fur
Gesch. d. Philosophie, 1902; in Zeitschrift 7. Kirchen-
gesch. 16, 23, 31, and Rheinisches Museum, 1908; De
Vos in Revue de Philologie 1910; Schwarz in Philo-
logus 1892; Bidez in Bulletins de lacadémie des
sciences de Bruxelles, 1904. An invaluable detailed
account of the MSS. of the Letters is that of Bidez
and Cumont, Iecherches sur la tradition manuscrite des
lettres de Tempereur Julien, Bruxelles, 1898. The
introduction to their critical edition of the Leéters,
1922, contains a few additions to and corrections of
this monograph.
Against the Galilaeans.—For the MSS. of Cyril of
Alexandria from which Neumann reconstructed this
treatise, see Neumann, Prolegomenon to his edition,
1880. In Theologische Litteraturzeitung 10, 1899,
Neumann published a new frag. of this work.
Asmus, Julian’s Galiliéerschrift, Freiburg, 1904, is a
useful concordance of the works of Julian with
relation to the treatise Against the Galilaeans, with
“some textual criticism. Gollwitzer, Observationes
eriticae in Juliani imp. contra Christianos libros, Er-
langen, 1886.
Ιχν
INTRODUCTION
Epitions.—See also the Bibliography in Julian,
Vol. 1, Loeb Library, Wright.
Editio princeps, Aldus, Venice, 1499 (48 letters),
Spanheim, Leipzig, 1696, contains all the other
works of Julian and 63 letters, the letter from
Gallus to Julian, and Cyril’s refutation of the treatise
Against the Gallaeans, edited by Aubert; Latin
translation. Hertlein’s and Neumann’s marginal
numbers correspond to the pages of Spanheim.
Muratorius, Anecdota Graeca, Padua, 1709 (Letters
64, 65, 66, Hertlein; fragg. 12, 13; Letter 57
(Wright), first published). Lpistolographi Graeci,
Hercher, Paris, 1873, pp. 337-391. Juliant Imp.
librorum contra Christianos quae supersunt, Neumann,
Leipzig, 1880. Juliant Imperatoris epistulae, leges,
poematia, fragmenta varia, Bidez et -Cumont, Paris,
1922 (too late to be used for the present text).
LireraTure.—See also the Bibliography in Julian,
Vol. 1, Loeb Library, Wright.
The Letters —Codex Theodosianus, Leipzig, 1736—-
45, Bonn, 1847. Sievers, Das Leben des Libanius,
Berlin, 1868. Rendall, Zhe Emperor Julian, Cam-
bridge, 1879. Vollert, Kaiser Julians religiése u.
philos. Ueberzeugung, Giitersloh, 1899. Mau, Die
Religionsphilosophie K. Julians, Leipzig, 1907. Glover,
Life and Letters in the Fourth Century, Cambridge,
1901. Chinnock, A Few Notes on Julian and a
Translation of his Public Letters, London, 1901.
‘Seeck, Geschichte des Untergangs der Antiken Welt,
Vol. 4, Berlin, 1911; Dre Briefe des Labanius,
Leipzig, 1906, useful for the prosopography of the
Letters of Julian. Geffcken, Kaiser Julianus, Leipzig,
1914, has a good commentary. Libanii Opera, Vol.
Ιχνὶ
INTRODUCTION
10, Epistulae 1-839, Foerster, Leipzig, 1921. Euna-
pius, Lives of the Sophists and Philosophers, Wright’s
translation, Loeb Classical Library, 1922. Ammianus
Marcellinus, Res Gestae, is the best authority for
Julian’s career and his Persian campaign. Asmus in
Philologus 61,71, 72, on the Letters. Cumont, Etudes
Syriennes, Paris, 1917, La Marche de I Empereur
Julien, is a good description, with maps and illus-
trations, of Julian’s route from Antioch to the
Euphrates. Bidez, Le philosophe Iamblique et son
école, Rev. d. Etudes Grecques 1919. Cumont in Revue
de Philologie 16.
Against the Galilaeans.—Warburton, On the Earth-
quake which prevented Julian from rebuilding the Temple
at Jerusalem, London, 1750. Adler, Julian and the
Jews in the Jewish Quarterly Review, 1893. Whittaker,
The Neoplatonists, Cambridge, 1901. Bidez, Vie de
Porphyre, Gand, 1913. Harnack, Porphyrius, Gegen
die Christen, Berlin, 1916, cites passages in Julian
that may have been echoed from Porphyry.
Geffcken, Zwei Griechische Apologeten, Leipzig, 1907,
and in Neue Jahrbb. 1908.
Transtations.—See also Vol. 1, Bibliography.
Talbot, Paris, 1863 (French; the complete works
so far as then known). Asmus, Kaiser Julians philo-
sophische Werke, Leipzig, 1908 (German, with notes ;
no letters). Nevins, Against the Christians, London,
1873. Neumann, Leipzig, 1880 (German; of his
text of Against the Galilaeans). Marquis d’Argens,
Défense du paganisme par l empereur Julien en Grec et
en Francois, Berlin, 1764, 1767.
-lxvii
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THE WORKS OF
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
ΠῚ
VOL, ΤΙ, Β
1
Πρίσκῳ 1
ἘΝ δεξάμενός σου τὰ γράμματα παραχρῆμα
τὸ ᾿Αρχέλαον ἀπέστειλα, δοὺς αὐτῷ φέρειν
BE πρὸς σέ, καὶ TO σύνθημα, ᾿καθάπερ
ἐκέλευσας, εἰς πλείονα χρόνον. ἱστορῆσαι δέ
σοι τὸν ὠκεανὸν ἐθέλοντι ὑπάρξει σὺν θεῷ πάντα
κατὰ γνώμην, εἰ μὴ τὴν τῶν ἸΙὶαλατῶν ἀμουσίαν
καὶ τὸν χειμῶνα διευλαβηθείης. ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν
ὅπως ἂν 7 τῷ θεῷ φίλον γενήσεται, ἐγὼ δὲ ἐ ὄμνυμί
σοι τὸν πάντων ἀγαθῶν ἐμοὶ αἴτιον καὶ σωτῆρα,
ὅτι διὰ τοῦτο ζῆν εὔχομαι, ἵν᾽ ὑμῖν Te χρήσιμος
γένωμαι. τὸ δὲ ὑμῖν ὅταν εἴπω, τοὺς ἀληθινούς
φημι φιλοσόφους, ὧν εἶναί σε πεισθεὶς οἶσθα πῶς
ἐφίλησα καὶ φιλῶ καὶ ὁρᾶν εὔχομαι. ἐρρωμένον
σε ἡ θεία πρόνοια διαφυλάξειε πολλοῖς χρόνοις,
ἀδελφὲ ποθεινότατε καὶ φιλικώτατε. τὴν ἱερὰν
Ἱππίαν καὶ τὰ παιδία ὑμῶν προσαγορεύω.
2
Πρίσκῳ *
Περὶ τοῦ τὴν σὴν ἀγαθότητα πρός με ἥκειν,
εἴπερ διανοῇ, νῦν σὺν τοῖς θεοῖς βούλευσαι καὶ
1 Hertlein 71
2 Papadopoulos 4*; not in Hertlein.
1 For another letter to Priscus, see p. 15.
2 Literally ‘‘token,” a synonym of τὸ σύμβολον. This,
like the Latin tessera, could be of various kinds, but here
Julian probably refers to a document, the equivalent of the
2
1
To Priseus +
On receiving your letter I at once despatched
Archelaus, and gave him letters to carry to you, and
the passport,” as you wished, for a longer time. If
you are inclined to explore the ocean, everything,
with the god’s help, will be provided for you as you
would wish, unless you dread the boorishness of the
Gauls and the winter climate. This, however, will
turn out as the god sees fit; but I swear to you by
him who is the giver and preserver of all my good
fortune that I desire to live only that I may in
some degree be of use to you. When [ say “ you,”
"1 mean the true philosophers, and convinced as I am
that you are one of these, how much I have loved
and love you you well know, and how I desire to see
you. May Divine Providence preserve you in health
for many a year, my dearest and best beloved
brother! I salute the admirable Hippia and your
children.? »
2
To the Same
As regards a visit to me from your good self,’ if
you have it in mind, make your plans now, with the
modern passport, which he had visaed for Priscus in order
that he might proceed to Gaul.
* For the life of Priscus, cf. Eunapius, Lives of the Sophists
- and Philosophers. He visited Julian in Gaul, was summoned
to Constantinople not long after Julian’s accession, and went
with him to Persia. See Introduction, under Priscus.
4 Lit. ‘‘ your goodness.” For Ju jan’s use of this and
similar abstract words, see p. 109.
3
B 2
359 A.D
From
Gaul
858-359
From
Gaul
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
προθυμήθητι" τυχὸν γὰρ ὀλίγον ὕστερον οὐδὲ ἐγὼ
σχολὴν ἄξω. τὰ ᾿Ἰαμβλίχου πάντα μοι τὰ εἰς
τὸν ὁμώνυμον ζήτει" δύνασαι δὲ μόνος" ἔχει γὰρ
ὁ τῆς σῆς ἀδελφῆς γαμβρὸς εὐδιόρθωτα. εἰ δὲ
μὴ σφάλλομαι, καὶ “σημεῖόν τί μοι, ἡνίκα τοῦτο τὸ
μέρος ἔγραφον, & ἐγένετο θαυμάσιον. ἱκετεύω σε,
μὴ διαθρυλείτωσαν οἱ Θεοδώρειοι καὶ τὰς σὰς
ἀκοάς, ὅτι ἄρα φιλότιμος ὁ θεῖος ἀληθῶς καὶ
μετὰ Πυθαγόραν καὶ Πλάτωνα τρίτος Ἰάμβλι-
χος" εἰ δὲ τολμηρὸν πρὸς σὲ τὴν αὑτοῦ διάνοιαν
φανερὰν ποιεῖν, ὡς ἕπεται τοῖς ἐνθουσιῶσιν, οὐ
παράλογος ἡ συγγνώμη" καὶ αὐτὸς δὲ περὶ μὲν
Ἰάμβλιχον ἐν φιλοσοφίᾳ, περὶ δὲ τὸν ὁμώνυμον "
ἐν θεοσοφίᾳ péunvas.® καὶ νομίζω τοὺς ἄλλους,
κατὰ τὸν ᾿Απολλόδωρον, μηθὲν εἶναι πρὸς τού-
τους. ὑπὲρ δὲ τῶν ᾿Αριστοτέλους συναγωγῶν
ἃς ἐποιήσω, τοσοῦτόν σοι λέγω' πεποίηκάς με
ψευδεπίγραφον εἶναί σου μαθητήν' ὁ μὲν γὰρ
Τύριος Μάξιμος a βιβλίοις με τῆς Πλατωνικῆς
λογικῆς ὀλίγα μυεῖν εἶχε, σὺ δέ με δι᾿ ἕνος
βιβλίου τῆς ᾿Αριστοτελικῆς φιλοσοφίας ἐποί-
No as ἴσως δὴ καὶ βάκχον, ἀλλ᾽ οὖν γεῦ ναρθηκο-
φόρον. εἰ δὲ ἀληθῆ λέγω, παραγενομένῳ cot
1 ἄξω Wright, ἄγω MSS.
2 Bidez ὁμώνυμόν μου to support his theory that Julian
reters, to Julian the theurgist.
3 uéunvas Weil, pevowa Bidez, μενοιᾷ MS. μενοινᾷς
Papadopoulos.
4 ἐξ--εἶχε Cumont ; εἰς βιβλία μοι δυεῖν πλείονα τῆς λογικῆς
ὀλίγα εἶπε Papadopoulos; εἰς βιβλία μὲν πλείονα τῆς λογικῆς
ὀλίγα δυεῖν εἶπε MS. I accept Cumont’s bold and ingenious
version of this corrupt passage. Buecheler first suggested
that Plato’s name should be restored out of πλείονα rijs.
5 Weil supplies γε; Cumont ἀλλ᾽ οὖν ; MS. ἀλλ᾽ οὔτι.
4
TO PRISCUS
help of the gods, and exert yourself; for perhaps a
little later I too shall have no time to spare. Hunt
up for me all the writings of Iamblichus to his?
namesake. Only you can do this, for your sister's
son-in-law owns a thoroughly revised version. And,
if I am not mistaken, while I was writing this
sentence, a marvellous sign? was vouchsafed me. 1
entreat you not to let Theodorus® and his followers
deafen you too by their assertions that lamblichus,
that truly godlike man, who ranks next to Pythagoras
and Plato, was worldly and self-seeking. But if it
be rash to declare my own opinion to you, I may
reasonably expect you to excuse me, as one excuses
those who are carried away by a divine frenzy. You
are yourself an ardent admirer of Iamblichus for his
philosophy and of his namesake for his theosophy.
And I too think, like Apollodorus, that the rest are
not worth mentioning compared with those two, As
for your collection of the works of Aristotle, so much
I will say, you have made me style myself your pupil,
though I have no right to the title. For while
Maximus of Tyre in six books was able to initiate
me to some little extent into Plato’s logic, you, with
one book, have made me, perhaps I may even say, a
complete initiate in the philosophy of Aristotle, but
at any rate a thyrsus-bearer.4 When you join me 1
1 Bidez prefers ‘‘ my namesake,” and makes the writer re-
fer to Julian the theurgist or Chaldean, whom we know from
Suidas. More probably the younger Iamblichus is meant.
2 Cf, Vol. 2, 284c, for a similar sign of approval given to
. Julian by Zeus.
8 Theodorus of Asine was a disciple of the great Iamblichus ;
we know of no such polemics as are indicated here.
4 Plato, Phaedo 69c, says that ‘‘many carry the thyrsus
of Dionysus, but few are really inspired.”
5
441
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
πολλὰ πάνυ τοῦ πέρυσιν χειμῶνος ἐξελέγξει
πάρεργα.
3
Εὐμενίῳ καὶ Φαριανῷ 1
Ki τις ὑμᾶς πέπεικεν, ὅτι τοῦ φιλοσοφεῖν ἐπὶ
σχολῆς ἀπραγμόνως ἐστὶν ἥδιον ἢ ἢ λυσιτελέστερόν
τι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις, ἠπατημένος ἐξαπατᾷ" εἰ δὲ
μένει Tap ὑμῖν ἡ πάλαι προθυμία καὶ μὴ καθάπερ
φλὸξ λαμπρὰ ταχέως ἀπέσβη, μακαρίους ἔγωγε
ὑμᾶς ὑπολαμβάνω. τέταρτος ἐνιαυτὸς ἤδη παρε-
λήλυθε καὶ μὴν οὑτοσὶ τρίτος ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ σχεδόν,
ἐξότε κεχωρίσμεθα “ἡμεῖς ἀλλήλων. ἡδέως δ᾽ ἂν
σκεψαίμην," ἐν τούτῳ πόσον τι προεληλύθατε.
τὰ δὲ ἐμά, εἰ καὶ φθεγγοίμην “Ἑλληνιστί, θαυμά-
ζειν ἄξιον' οὕτως ἐσμὲν ἐκβεβαρβαρωμένοι διὰ
τὰ χωρία. μὴ καταφρονεῖτε τῶν "λογιδίων, μηδὲ
ἀμελεῖτε ῥητορικῆς μηδὲ τοῦ ποιήμασιν ὁμιλεῖν.
ἔστω δὲ τῶν μαθημάτων ἐπιμέλεια πλείων, ὁ
δὲ πᾶς πόνος τῶν ᾿Αριστοτέλους καὶ Πλάτωνος
δογμάτων ἐπιστήμη. τοῦτο ἔργον ἔστω, τοῦτο
κρηπίς, θεμέλιος, οἰκοδομία, στέγη: τἄλλα δὲ
πάρεργα, μετὰ μείξονος σπουδῆς παρ᾽ ὑμῶν ἐπι-
τελούμενα ἢ παρά τισι τὰ ἀληθῶς ἔργα. ἐγὼ νὴ
τὴν θείαν Δίκην ὑμᾶς ὡς ἀδελφοὺς φιλῶν ταῦτα
1 Hertlein 55.
2 Hertlein suggests ; ἐσκεψάμην MSS.
1 Julian went to Gaul in 355; he probably knew these
students in Athens, earlier in the same year.
6
TO EUMENIUS AND PHARIANUS
can prove the truth of my words by the great number
of works that I wrote in my spare time, during last
winter.
3
To Eumenius and Pharianus 1
Ir anyone has persuaded you that there is any-
thing more delightful or more profitable for the
human race than to pursue philosophy at one’s
leisure without interruptions, he is a deluded man
trying to delude you. But if your old-time zeal still
abides in you and has not been swiftly quenched
like a brilliant flame, then I regard you as peculiarly
blest. Four years have already passed, yes and
almost three months besides, since we parted from
one another. It would give me pleasure to observe
how far you have progressed in this period. As for
my own progress, if I can still so much as speak
Greek it is surprising, such a barbarian have I become
because of the places I have lived in.? Do not
despise the study. of mere words or be careless of
rhetoric or fail to read poetry. But you must devote
still more attention to serious studies, and let your
whole effort be to acquire understanding of the
teachings of Aristotle and Plato. Let this be your
task, the base, the foundation, the edifice, the roof.
For all other studies are by the way, though they
are completed by you with greater zeal than some
bestow on really important tasks. I call sacred
Justice to witness that I give you this advice because
2 Like all the sophists Julian recognises only Greek
culture, and for him Latin literature or the culture of Gaul
did not exist.
7
, 859
From
Gaul
384
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
ὑμῖν συμβουλεύω" γεγόνατε yap μοι συμφοιτηταὶ
καὶ πάνυ φίλοι. εἰ μὲν οὖν πεισθείητε, πλέον
στέρξω, ἀπειθοῦντας δὲ ὁρῶν λυπήσομαι. λύπη
δὲ συνεχὴς εἰς ὅ ποτε τελευτᾶν εἴωθεν, εἰπεῖν
παραιτοῦμαι οἰωνοῦ κρείττονος ἕνεκα.
4
>
OpiBacio 1
Τῶν ὀνειράτων δύο πύλας εἶναί φησιν ὁ θεῖος
Ὅμηρος, καὶ διάφορον εἶναι αὐτοῖς καὶ τὴν ὑπὲρ
τῶν ἀποβησομένων πίστιν. ἐγὼ δὲ νομίζω σε
νῦν, εἴπερ ποτὲ καὶ ἄλλοτε, σαφῶς ἑορακέναι
περὶ τῶν μελλόντων" ἐθεασάμην γὰρ καὶ αὐτὸς
τοιοῦτον σήμερον. δένδρον γὰρ ᾧμην ὑψηλὸν ἔν
τινι τρικλίνῳ σφόδρα μεγάλῳ πεφυτευμένον εἰς
ἔδαφος ῥέπειν, τῇ ῥίζῃ παραπεφυκότος ἑτέρου
μικροῦ καὶ νεογενοῦς, ἀνθηροῦ λίαν. ἐγὼ δὲ περὶ
τοῦ μικροῦ σφόδρα ἠγωνίων, μή τις αὐτὸ μετὰ τοῦ
μεγάλου συναποσπάσῃ. καὶ τοίνυν ἐπειδὴ πλη-
σίον ἐγενόμην, ὁρῶ τὸ μέγα μὲν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς
ἐκτεταμένον, τὸ μικρὸν δὲ ὀρθὸν μέν, μετέωρον
δὲ ἀπὸ γῆς. ὡς οὖν εἶδον, ἀγωνιάσας ἔφην"
“Οἴου δένδρου! κίνδυνός ἐστι μηδὲ τὴν παρα-
φυάδα σωθῆναι. καί τις ἀγνὼς ἐμοὶ παντελῶς
1 Hertlein 17. This letter exists in only one MS. of
importance, the Vossianus.
1 Oribasius was the physician, friend, and perhaps accgm-
plice of Julian in his ambitions: cf. Letter to the Athenians
Vol. 2, p. 265; and for his career, Eunapius, Lives of the
Sophists and Philosophers. He was at Vienne when Julian
wrote this letter.
8
TO ORIBASIUS
I love you like brothers. For you were my fellow-
students and my very good friends. If therefore
you follow my advice I shall love you the more, but
if I see that you disregard it I shall grieve. And
grief, if it lasts, usually results in something that,
for the sake of a happier augury, I forbear to
mention,
4
To Oribasius 1
Tue divinely inspired Homer says? that there are
two gates of dreams, and that with regard to future
events we cannot trust them both equally. But I
think that this time, if ever before, you have seen
clearly into the future; for I too this very day saw a
vision of the same sort. I thought that in a certain
very spacious room a tall tree had been planted,
and that it was leaning down to the ground, while
at its root had sprouted another, small and young
and very flourishing. Now I was very anxious on
behalf of the small tree, lest someone in pulling up
the large one should pull it up as well. And in fact,
when I came close I saw that the tall tree was lying
at full length on the ground, while the small one
was still erect, but hung suspended away from the
earth. Now when I saw this I said, in great anxiety,
“ Alas for this tall tree! There is danger that not
even its offspring will be preserved.” Then one®
2 Odyssey 19, 562, Oribasius had evidently reported to
Julian some dream of his which augured well for their hopes.
In the dream that follows the tall tree is Constantius, the
sapling is Julian.
Ἶ ao who was Julian’s guide in the myth in Oration
‘ Cs
9
858-9
From
Paris
385
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
‘i Opa, ἔφησεν, ἀκριβῶς καὶ θάρρει" τῆς ῥίζης γὰρ
ἐν τῇ γῇ μενούσης τὸ μικρότερον ἀβλαβὲς διαμενεῖ
καὶ βεβαιότερον ἱδρυνθήσεται." τὰ μὲν δὴ τῶν
ὀνειράτων τοιαῦτα, θεὸς δὲ οἶδεν εἰς ὅτι φέρει.
περὶ δὲ τοῦ “μιαροῦ ἀνδρογύνου μάθοιμ᾽ ἂν
ἡδέως ἐκεῖνο, πότε διελέχθη περὶ ἐμοῦ ταῦτα,
πότερον πρὶν ἢ συντυχεῖν ἐμοὶ ἢ μετὰ τοῦτο.
δήλωσον οὖν ἡμῖν ὅ, TL ἂν οἷός. τε ἧς.
ὑπὲρ δὲ τῶν πρὸς αὐτὸν ἴσασιν οἱ θεοὶ ὅτι
πολλάκις, αὐτοῦ τοὺς ἐπαρχιώτας ἀδικήσαντος,
ἐσιώπησα, παρὰ τὸ πρέπον ἐμαυτῷ, τὰ μὲν οὐκ
ἀκούων, τὰ δὲ οὐ προσιέμενος, ἄλλοις δὲ a ἀπιστῶν,
ἔνια δὲ εἰς τοὺς συνόντας αὐτῷ τρέπων. ὅτι δέ
μοι μεταδοῦναι τῆς τοιαύτης ἠξίωσεν αἰσχύνης,
ἀποστείλας τὰ μιαρὰ καὶ πάσης αἰσχύνης ἄξια
ὑπομνήματα, τί με πράττειν ἐχρῆν ; : ἄρα σιωπᾶν
ἢ μάχεσθαι; τὸ “μὲν οὖν πρῶτον ἣν ἠλίθιον καὶ
δουλθτῥετὸς καὶ θεομίσητον, τὸ δεύτερον. δὲ
δίκαιον μὲν καὶ ἀνδῤεῖον καὶ ἐλευθέριον, ὑπὸ δὲ
τῶν κατεχόντων * ἡμᾶς πραγμάτων οὐ συγχωρού-
μενον. τί τοίνυν ἐποίησα ; πολλῶν παρόντων,
οὺς ἤδειν ἀναγγελοῦντας αὐτῷ “ΠΠάντη καὶ
πάντως, εἶπον, διορθώσει τὰ ὑπομνήματα οὗτος 8
1 Hercher supplies οἱ θεοί. 2 Cobet ; MS. ἐχόντων.
3 Hertlein brackets, Asmus defends.
1 Probably Eusebius the chamberlain of Constantius whose
intrigues against Julian are mentioned in Lctter to the
Athenians 2744. The epithet is unsuitable to Florentius,
though some editors refer it to him.
ἡ In spite of the abruptness of the transition, I follow
Asmus in supposing that Julian here, partly for prudence
and partly because of his sophistie habit of avoiding names,
refers to Florentius, prefect of Gaul 357-360 and consul
1o
TO ORIBASIUS
who was altogether a stranger to me said: “ Look
carefully and take courage. For since the root still
remains in the earth, the smaller tree will be un-
injured and will be established even more securely
than before.” So much then for my dreams. God
knows what they portend.
As for that abominable eunuch,' I should be glad
to learn when he said these things about me, whether
it was before he met me, or since. So tell me
whatever you can about this.
But with regard to my behaviour towards him,?
the gods know that often, when he wronged the
provincials, I kept silence, at the expense of my own
honour; to some charges I would not listen, others I
would not admit, others again I did not believe, while
in some cases | imputed the blame to his associates.
But when he thought fit to make me share in such
infamy by sending to me to sign those shameful and
wholly abominable reports? what was the right
thing for me to do? Was I to remain silent, or to
oppose him? ‘The former course was foolish, servile
and odious to the gods, the latter was just, manly
and liberal, but was not open to me on account of the
affairs that engaged me. What then did Ido? In
the presence of many persons who I knew would
report it to him I said: “ Such-a-one will certainly
and by all means revise his reports, for they pass
361 A.D., who was at Vienne at this time. For his oppression
of the province, see Ammianus 17. 3. 2; Julian, Letter to
the Athenians 282c. When Julian was proclaimed Augustus,
Ὁ he fled to Constantius, and later, though condemned to
death by Julian, remained in hiding till the latter’s death,
Ammianus 22, 3. 6.
8 For Julian’s refusal to sign or even read the prefect’s
orders for fresh taxes, see Ammianus 17. 3. 5.
It
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
ὁ δεῖνα, ἐπεὶ δεινῶς ἀσχημονεῖ." τοῦτο ἐκεῖνος
ἀκούσας τοσοῦτον ἐδέησε σωφρόνως τι πρᾶξαι,
ὥστε πεποίηκεν οἷα μὰ τὸν θεὸν οὐδ᾽ ἂν εἷς
μέτριος τύραννος, οὕτω μου πλησίον ὄντος. ἐν-
ταῦθα τί πράττειν ἐχρῆν ἄνδρα τῶν ἸΠλάτωνος
καὶ ᾿Αριστοτέλους ζηλωτὴν δογμάτων ; ; ἄρα
περιορᾶν ἀνθρώπους ἀθλίους τοῖς κλέπταις ἐκδι-
δομένους, ἢ ἢ κατὰ δύναμιν αὐτοῖς ἀμύνειν, ὡς 1 ἤδη
τὸ κύκνειον ἐξάδουσι διὰ τὸ θεομισὲς ἐργαστήριον
τῶν τοιούτων ; ἐμοὶ μὲν οὖν αἰσχρὸν εἶναι δοκεῖ
τοὺς μὲν χιλιάρχους, ὅταν λείπωσι τὴν τάξιν,
καταδικάζξειν' Kaitou χρῆν ἐκείνους 5 τεθνάναι
παραχρῆμα καὶ μηδὲ ταφῆς ἀξιοῦσθαι" τὴν δὲ
ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀθλίων ἀνθρώπων ἀπολείπειν τάξιν,
ὅταν δέῃ πρὸς κλέπτας ἀγωνίζεσθαι τοιούτους,
καὶ ταῦτα τοῦ θεοῦ συμμαχοῦντος ἡμῖν, ὅσπερ
οὗν ἔταξεν. εἰ δὲ καὶ παθεῖν TL συμβαίη, μετὰ
καλοῦ τοῦ συνειδότος οὐ μικρὰ παραμυθία πορευ-
θῆναι. τὸν δὲ χρηστὸν Σαλούστιον θεοὶ μέν μοι
χαρίσαιντο. κἂν συμβαίνῃ δὲ διὰ τοῦτο τυγ-
χάνειν διαδόχου, λυπήσει τυχὸν οὐδέν' ἄμεινον
γὰρ ὀλίγον ὀρθῶς ἢ ἢ πολὺν κακῶς πρᾶξαι χρόνον.
οὐκ ἔστιν, ὡς λέγουσί τινες, τὰ Περιπατητικὰ
δόγματα τῶν Στωικῶν ᾿ἀγεννέστερα, τοσούτῳ δὲ
μόνον ἀλλήλων, ὡς ἐγὼ κρίνω, διαφέρει" τὰ “μὲν
γάρ ἐστιν ἀεὶ θερμότερα καὶ ἀβουλότερα, τὰ δὲ
1 Before ὡς Hercher deletes, Hertlein brackets, οἶμαι.
2 Boissonade, MS. ἱκανά.
1 Sallust, who accompanied Julian as civil adviser, was
recalled by Constantius in 358. Julian, Oration 8; Oration
4 is dedicated to him,
12
TO ORIBASIUS
the bounds of decency.” When he heard this, he
was so far from behaving with discretion that he did
things which, by heaven, no tyrant with any modera-
tion would have done, and that too though I was so
near where he was. In such a case what was the
proper conduct for a man who is a zealous student of
the teachings of Plato and Aristotle? Ought 1 to
have looked on while the wretched people were
being betrayed to thieves, or to have aided them as
far as I could, for they were already singing their
swan-song because of the criminal artifices of men of
that sort? To me, at least, it seems a disgraceful
thing that, while I punish my military tribunes when
they desert their post—and indeed they ought to be
put to death at once, and not even granted burial—
I should myself desert my post which is for the
defence of such wretched people; whereas it is my
duty to fight against thieves of his sort, especially
when God is fighting on my side, for it was indeed
he who posted me here. And if any harm to myself
should result, it is no small consolation to have
proceeded with a good conscience. But I pray that
the gods may let me keep the excellent Sallust!?
If, however, it turns out that because of this affair I
receive his successor,? perhaps it will not grieve me.
For it is better to do one’s duty for a brief time
honestly than for a long time dishonestly. The
Peripatetic teachings are not, as some say, less noble
than the Stoic. In my judgement, there is only
this difference between them; the former are always
more sanguine and not so much the result of
deliberate thought, while the latter have a greater
* This strains the construction but seems more probable
than the rendering “If I should be superseded.”
13
425
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
7 > , \ ” 9 7 a
φρονήσεως ἀξιώτερα Kal τοῖς ἐγνωσμένοις μᾶλλον
ἐμμένει.
5
Πρίσκῳ 3
Ἄρτι μοι παυσαμένῳ τῆς χαλεπῆς πάνυ καὶ
τραχείας νόσου τῇ τοῦ πάντα ἐφορῶντος προνοίᾳ
γράμματα εἰς χεῖρας ἦλθεν ὑμέτερα, καθ᾽ ἣν ἡμέ-
ραν πρῶτον ἐλουσάμην. δείλης ἤδη ταῦτα ἀνα-
γνοὺς οὐκ ἂν εἴποις ῥᾳδίως ὅπως ἐρρωννύμην,
αἰσθανόμενος τῆς σῆς ἀκραιφνοῦς καὶ καθαρᾶς
εὐνοίας, ἧς εἴθε γενοίμην ἄξιος, ὡς ἂν μὴ καται-
σχύναιμι τὴν σὴν φιλίαν. τὰς μὲν οὖν ὑμετέρας
ἐπιστολὰς εὐθὺς ἀ ἀνέγνων, καίπερ οὐ σφόδρα. τοῦτο
ποιεῖν δυνάμενος, τὰς δὲ τοῦ ᾿Αντωνίου πρὸς τὸν
᾿Αλέξανδρον εἰς τὴν ὑστεραίαν ἐταμιευδάμηνι
ἐκεῖθεν ἑβδόμῃ σοι ταῦτα ἔγραφον ἡμέρᾳ." κατὰ
λόγον μὸι τῆς ῥώσεως προχωρούσης διὰ τὴν τοῦ
θεοῦ προμήθειαν. σώζοιό μοι, ποθεινότατε καὶ
φιλικώτατε ἀδελφέ, ὑ ὑπὸ τοῦ τὰ πάντα ἐφορῶντος
θεοῦ' ἴδοιμί σε, ἐμὸν ἀγαθόν. καὶ ἰδίᾳ χειρί: νὴ
τὴν σὴν σωτηρίαν καὶ τὴν ἐμήν, νὴ τὸν πάντα
ἐφορῶντα θεόν, ὡς φρονῶ γέγραφα. ἀγαθώτατε,
1 ἀξιώτερα καὶ τ. €. μᾶλλον Asmus ; ἄξια τ. ε. ἐμμένει Hertlein.
2 Hertlein 44. Λιβανίῳ Hertlein, Parisinus and all editions ;
Πρίσκῳ Baroccianus, Laurentianus lviii, Cumont.
3 Naber suggests ὥρᾳ.
1 I translate the suggested reading of. Asmus, but the
sense remains unsatisfactory.
14
TO PRISCUS
claim to practical wisdom, and are more rigidly con-
sistent with the rules of conduct that they have laid
down.
5
ΤῸ Priscus 2
I nap only just recovered by the providence of the
the very day when I took my first bath. It was
already evening when I read them, and it would be
hard for you to tell how my strength began to return
when I realised your pure and sincere affection. May
I become worthy of it, that I may not shame your
love for me! Your letters I read at once, though I
was not very well able to do so, but those of Antonius
to Alexander I stored up for the next day. On the
seventh day from their receipt I began to write this
to you, since my strength is improving reasonably
well, thanks to Divine Providence. May the All-
Seeing god preserve you, my dearest and best be-
loved brother. May I see you, my treasure! Added
mith his own hand. I swear by your well-being and
my own, by the All-Seeing god, that I really feel as
I have written. Best of men, when can I see you
2 So Cumont, following the ascription of MS. Baroccianus,
Hertlein with hesitation addressed it to Libanius. So, too,
Schwarz, who accordingly gives the date as 362 a.p. But as
assigned to Priscus, it should be connected with the foregoing
invitation to that sophist to come to Gaul, and the illness to
which Julian refers is almost certainly his semi-asphyxiation
in Paris described in Misopogon 340-342.
3 i.e. Helios-Mithras.
T5
_ 858-359
All-Seeing One® from a very severe and sharp attack \
of sickness, when your letters reached my hands, on ᾿
Winter,
From
Paris
402
403
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
, a
πότε σε ἴδω Kal περιλάβωμαι ; νῦν γάρ σου Kal
BA a
τοὔνομα καθάπερ οἱ δυσέρωτες φιλῶ.1
6
᾿Αλυπίῳ ἀδελφῷ Καισαρίου 3
ὋὉ Συλοσῶν ἀνῆλθε, φασί, παρὰ τὸν Δαρεῖον,
καὶ ὑπέμνησεν αὐτὸν τῆς χλανίδος, καὶ ἤτησεν
ἀντ᾽ ἐκείνης παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ τὴν Σάμον. εἶτα ἐπὶ
τούτῳ Δαρεῖος μὲν ἐμεγαλοφρονεῖτο, μεγάλα ἀντὶ
μικρῶν νομίζων ἀποδεδωκέναι: Συλοσῶν δὲ λυπη-
ρὰν ἐλάμβανε χάριν. σκόπει δὴ τὰ ἡμέτερα νῦν
πρὸς ἐκεῖνα. ἑνὶ μὲν δὴ τὸ πρῶτον οἶμαι κρεῖσ-
σον ἔργον ἡμέτερον' οὐδὲ γὰρ ὑπεμείναμεν ὑπο-
μνησθῆναι Tap ἄλλου: τοσούτῳ δὲ χρόνῳ τὴν
μνήμην τῆς σῆς φιλίας διαφυλάξαντες ἀκέραιον,
ἐπειδὴ πρῶτον ἡμῖν ἔδωκεν ὁ θεός, οὐκ ἐν δευτέροις,
ἀλλ᾽ ἐν τοῖς πρώτοις σε μετεκαλέσαμεν. τὰ μὲν
οὖν πρῶτα τοιαῦτα' περὶ δὲ τῶν μελλόντων apa
μοι δώσεις τι' καὶ γάρ εἶμι μαντικός" προαγο-
ρεῦσαι ; μακρῷ νομίζω κρείττονα ἐκείνων, ᾿Αδρά-
area δ᾽ εὐμενὴς εἴη. σύ τε γὰρ οὐδὲν δέῃ συγκα-
ταστρεφομένου πόλιν βασιλέως, ἐγώ τε πολλῶν
δέομαι τῶν συνεπανορθούντων μοι τὰ πεπτωκότα
1 ὑπὸ (six lines above) to φιλῶ in Baroccianus only,
bracketed by Spanheim and Hertlein, Hercher rejects.
2 Hertlein 29.
1 For Alypius see Introduction.
2 The story of Syloson from Herodotus 3. 139, is told by
Julian, Vol. 1. Oration 3. 1178. The ‘‘cloak of Syloson”
became a proverb for the overpayment of a benefit.
3 i.e. to Susa.
16
TO ALYPIUS, BROTHER OF CAESARIUS
and embrace you? For already, like doting lovers,
I adore your very name.
6
To Alypius, brother of Caesarius +
Sy oson,? it is said, went up*to Darius, reminded
him of his cloak and asked him for Samos in return
for it. Then Darius prided himself greatly on this,
because he considered that he had given much for
little; though after all it proved a grievous gift for
Syloson.4 Now consider my conduct compared with
that of Darius. In the first place I think that I
have behaved better than he in one point at any
rate, I mean that I did not wait to be reminded by
another. But after preserving the memory of your
friendship so long undimmed, the first moment that
the god granted me power I summoned you, not
among the second but among the very first. So much
for the past. Now with reference to the future, will
you allow me—for I am a prophet ®—to foretell
something? I think that it will be far more pros-
perous than in the case 1 spoke of, only let not
Adrasteia® take offence when I say so! For you
need no king to help you to conquer a city,’ while
I on the other hand need many to help me to raise
up again what has fallen on evil days. Thus does
4 The Persians devastated Samos before Syloson could
benefit by the gift. ᾿
᾿ δ᾽ An echo of Plato, Phaedrus 3438.
® Another name for Nemesis, cf. Vol. 2. Misopogon 8708.
* If the date assigned to the letter is correct this must be
Constantinople which Julian was preparing to occupy in his
march against Constantius..
17
VOL, III, σ
861
Before
July
Prom
Gaul
404
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
κακῶς. ταῦτά σοι Τ᾿ αλλικὴ καὶ βάρβαρος Μοῦσα
προσπαΐίζει, σὺ δὲ ὑπὸ τῇ τῶν θεῶν πομπῇ χαίρων
ἀφίκοιο. καὶ τῇ αὑτοῦ χειρί: Anis ἐρίφων καὶ
τῆς ἐν τοῖς χεἰϊμαδίοις θήρας τῶν προβατίων."
ἧκε πρὸς τὸν φίλον, ὅς σε τότε, καίπερ οὔπω
γινώσκειν οἷος ἃ εἶ δυνάμενος, ὅμως περιεῖπον.
7
Τῷ αὐτῷ 3
” elgg SR > , A ; \
Hén μὲν ἐτύγχανον ἀνειμένος τῆς νόσου," τὴν
γεωγραφίαν ὅτε ἀπέστειλας" οὐ μὴν ἔλαττον διὰ
τοῦτο ἡδέως ἐδεξάμην τὸ παρὰ σοῦ πινάκιον ἀπο-
σταλέν. ἔχει γὰρ καὶ τὰ διαγράμματα τῶν
πρόσθεν βελτίω, καὶ κατεμούσωσας αὐτὸ προσ-
θεὶς τοὺς ἰάμβους, οὐ μάχην ἀείδοντας τὴν Βου-
πάλειον κατὰ τὸν Κυρηναῖον ποιητήν, ἀλλ᾽ οἵους
ἡ καλὴ Σαπφὼ βούλεται τοῖς νόμοις ἁρμόττειν.
καὶ τὸ μὲν δῶρον τοιοῦτόν ἐστιν, ὁποῖον ἴσως σοί
τε ἔπρεπε δοῦναι, ἐμοί τε ἥδιστον δέξασθαι. περὶ
δὲ τὴν διοίκησιν τῶν πραγμάτων ὅτι δραστηρίως
ἅμα καὶ πράως ἅπαντα περαίνειν προθυμῇ, συνη-
δόμεθα' μῖξαι γὰρ πρᾳότητα καὶ σωφροσύνην
ἀνδρείᾳ καὶ ῥώμῃ, καὶ τῇ μὲν χρήσασθαι πρὸς
1 καί τι5---θῆρα Capps suggests.
2 Obscure and perhaps corrupt. Hertlein suggests προβά-
των τῶν ἀγρίων, ** wild sheep.”
38 Klimek ; ὅσος Hertlein. 4 Hertlein 30.
5 Hertlein suggests παρειμένος τῇ νόσῳ or ὑπὸ τῆς νόσου.
1 This is perhaps ἃ veiled allusion to Julian’s plot to defeat
the adherents of Constantius.
18
TO ALYPIUS, BROTHER OF CAESARIUS
my Gallic and barbarian Muse jest for your benefit.
But be of good cheer and come, and may the gods
attend you.
Added nith his own hand. There is good spoil of
deer and hunting of small sheep in the winter
quarters. Come to your friend who valued you
even when he could not yet know your merit.
t
To the Same
Ir happened that when you sent me your map
I had just recovered from my illness, but I was none
the less glad on that account to receive the chart
that you sent. For not only does it contain diagrams
better than any hitherto made; but you have em-
bellished it by adding those iambic verses, not such as
“Sing the War of Bupalus,” ? as the poet of Cyrene ὃ
expresses it, but such as beautiful Sappho is wont
to fashion for her songs.4 In fact: the gift is such
as no doubt it well became you to give, while to
me it is most agreeable to receive.6 With regard
te your administration of affairs, inasmuch as you
study to act in all cases both energetically and
humanely, I am well pleased with it. For to blend
mildness and moderation with courage and force,
and to exercise the former towards the most virtuous,
2 Hor Bupalus cf. Horace, Epodes 6. 14; Lucian, Pseudolo-
gist 2.
3. Callimachus, frag. 90, Ernesti.
* Literally “nomes,” though Julian may only have meant
** poetry’; in any case he refers to lyric iambics.
y y
5 An echo of Isocrates, Nicocles 298,
19
c 2
414
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
TOUS ἐπιεικεστάτους, TH δὲ ἐπὶ τῶν πονηρῶν ἀπα-
ραιτήτως πρὸς ἐπανόρθωσιν οὐ μικρᾶς ἐστὶ φύσεως
οὐδ᾽ ἀρετῆς ἔργον, ὡς ἐμαυτὸν πείθω. τούτων
εὐχόμεθά σε τῶν σκοπῶν ἐχόμενον ἄμφω πρὸς ev
τὸ καλὸν αὐτοὺς συναρμόσαι' τοῦτο γὰρ ἁπάσαις
προκεῖσθαι ταῖς ἀρεταῖς τέλος οὐκ εἰκῆ τῶν πα-
λαιῶν ἐπίστευον οἱ λογιώτατοι. ἐρρωμένος καὶ
εὐδαιμονῶν διατελοίης ἐπὶ μήκιστον, ἀδελφὲ
ποθεινότατε καὶ φιλικώτατε.
8
Μαξίμῳ φιλοσόφῳ }
, , \
Πάντα ἀθρόα ἔπεισί μοι καὶ ἀποκλείει τὴν
\ ” 7 al > lal lal
φωνὴν ἄλλο ἄλλῳ προελθεῖν οὐ συγχωροῦν τῶν
ἐμῶν διανοημάτων, εἴτε τῶν ψυχικῶν 5 παθῶν
εἴτε ὅπως φίλον κατονομάζειν τὰ τοιαῦτα. ἀλλ᾽
ἀποδῶμεν αὐτοῖς ἣν ὁ χρόνος ἀπέδωκε τάξιν,
εὐχαριστήσαντες τοῖς πάντα ἀγαθοῖς θεοῖς, οἱ
τέως μὲν γράφειν ἐμοὶ συνεχώρησαν, ἴσως δὲ ἡῖν
καὶ ἀλλήλους ἰδεῖν συγχωρήσουσιν. ὡς πρῶτον
αὐτοκράτωρ ἐγενόμην ἄκων," ὡς ἴσασιν οἱ θεοΐ,
n ,
καὶ τοῦτο αὐτόθι“ καταφανὲς ὃν ἐνεδέχετο τρό-
πον ἐποίησα' στρατεύσας ἐπὶ τοὺς βαρβάρους,
A 4
ἐκείνης μοι γενομένης τριμήνου τῆς στρατείας,
1 Hertlein 38.
? τῶν Bidez adds, ψυχρὸν τῶν MSS., Hertlein, who suspects
corruption ; ψυχικῶν παθῶν Papadopoulos MSS. XY.
3 ἄκων ἐγενόμην Hertlein, from Parisinus 2755.
* αὐτοῖς ef MSS. ; αὐτοῖς Hertlein; αὐτόθι Capps.
1 Cf. Oration 1. 3p, Vol. 1.
20
TO MAXIMUS, THE PHILOSOPHER
and the latter implacably in the case of the wicked
for their regeneration, is, as 1 am convinced, a task
that calls for no slight natural endowment and
virtue. I pray that you may ever hold fast to
these ambitions and may adapt them both solely to
what is fair and honourable.! Not without reason
did the most eloquent of the ancient writers believe
that this is the end and aim set for all the virtues.
May you continue in health and happiness as long
as possible, my well-beloved and most dear brother !
8
To Maximus, the philosopher 2
EVERYTHING crowds into my mind at once and
chokes my utterance, as one thought refuses to let
another precede it, whether you please to class such
symptoms among psychic troubles, or to give them
some other name. But let me arrange what I have
to tell in chronological order, though not till I have
first offered thanks to the all-merciful gods, who at
this present have permitted me to write, and will
also perhaps permit us to see one another. Directly
after I had been made Emperor—against my will,
as the gods know; and this I made evident then and
there in every way possible,—I led the army against
the barbarians. That expedition lasted for three
* The theurgist. His life was written by Eunapius, Lives
of the Sophists and Philosophers. Maximus was at Ephesus ;
Julian’s headquarters were at Naissa, where he had received
news of the death of Constantius, November 3rd, 361. Schwarz
dates this letter October or November.
8. i.e. when he recrossed the Rhine in 360, For this
campaign, see Ammianus 20, 10,
21
361
Novem-
ber
From
Naissa
(Nish)
C
415
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
> \ > \ ‘ > \ > ,
ἐπανιὼν εἰς τοὺς L‘aXatixovs αἰγιαλοὺς ἐπεσκό-
πουν καὶ τῶν ἐκεῖθεν ἡκόντων ἀνεπυνθανόμην, μή
τίς φιλόσοφος, μή τις σχολαστικὸς ἢ τριβώνιον ἢ
χλανίδιον φορῶν κατῆρεν. ἐπεὶ δὲ περὶ τὸν Βι-
σεντίωνα 5 ἣν" πολίχνη“ δὲ νῦν ἐστὶν * ἀνειλημμένη,
πάλαι δὲ μεγάλη τε ἣν καὶ πολυτελέσιν ἱεροῖς
ἐκεκόσμητο, καὶ τείχει καρτερῷ καὶ προσέτι τῇ
φύσει τοῦ. ὡρίου' περιθεῖ γὰρ αὐτὸ ὁ Δοῦβις
ποταμός" ἡ ὲ ὥσπερ ἐν θαλάττῃ πετρώδης ἄκρα
ἀνέστηκεν, ἄ ἄβατος ὀλίγου δέω φάναι καὶ αὐτοῖς
ὄρνισι, πλὴν ὅσα ὁ ποταμὸς αὐτὴν περιρρέων
ὥσπερ τινὰς αἰγιαλοὺς ἐ ἔχει προκειμένους" ταύτης
πλησίον τῆς πόλεως ἀπήντησε κυνικός τις ἀνήρ,
ἔχων τρίβωνα καὶ βακτηρίαν. τοῦτον ͵ πόρρωθεν
θεασάμενος οὐδὲν ἄλλον ὑπέλαβον ἢ ἢ σέ, πλησίον
δὲ ἤδη προσιὼν παρὰ σοῦ πάντως ἥκειν αὐτὸν
ἐνόμιξον. οὗτος 5 δ᾽ ἁνὴρ φίλος μέν, ἥττων * δὲ
τῆς προσδοκωμένης ἐλπίδος. ἕν μὲν δὴ τοιοῦτον
ὄναρ ἐγένετό μοι. μετὰ τοῦτο δὲ πάντως ὃ ὥμην
σε πολυπραγμονήσαντα. τὰ κατ᾽ ἐμὲ τῆς Ἑλλάδος
ἐκτὸς οὐδαμῶς εὑρήσειν. ἴστω Ζεύς, ἴ ἴστω μέγας
Ἥλιος, ¢ ἴστω ᾿Αθηνᾶς κράτος καὶ πάντες θεοὶ καὶ
πᾶσαι, πῶς κατιὼν ἐπὶ τοὺς Ἰλλυριοὺς a ἀπὸ τῶν
Κελτῶν ἔτρεμον ὑπὲρ σοῦ. καὶ ἐπυνθανόμην τῶν
1 Schwarz suggests σταθμοὺς because of the strange use of
a’ ‘yards, ** beach,” for the bank of a river.
2 Βισεντίωνα X, Βικεντίωνα Parisinus, Hertlein. ἣν Schwarz
adds.
3 πολίχνη Cobet, πολίχνιον MSS., Hertlein.
4 δέ ἐστι νῦν X. δ οὐδένα ἄλλον XY. 8 ὥφθη δὲ XY.
* ἥττων XY, ἧττον Parisinus, Hertlein.
8 πάντως Parisinus omits, followed by Hertlein.
® εὑρεθῆναι Hertlein.
22
TO MAXIMUS, THE PHILOSOPHER
months, and when I returned to the shores of Gaul, I
was ever on the watch and kept enquiring from all
who came from that quarter whether any philosopher
or any scholar wearing a philosopher's cloak or a
soldier’s tunic had arrived there. Then I approached
Besontio.! It is a little town that has lately been
restored, but in ancient times it was a large city
adorned with costly temples, and was fortified by a
strong wall and further by the nature of the place ;
for it is encircled by the river Doubis.? It rises up
like a rocky cliff in the sea, inaccessible, I might
almost say, to the very birds, except in those places
where the river as it flows round it throws out what
one may call beaches, that lie in front of it. Near
this city there came to meet me a certain man who
looked like a Cynic with his long cloak and staff.
When I first caught sight of him in the distance, I
imagined that he was none other than yourself.
And when I came nearer to him I thought that he
had surely come from you. The man was in fact
a friend of mine though he fell short of what I
hoped and expected. This then was one vain dream
Thad! And afterwards I thought that, because you
were busied with my affairs, I should certainly find
you nowhere outside of Greece. Zeus be my witness
and great Helios, mighty Athene and all the gods and
goddesses, how on my way down to Illyricum from
Gaul? 1 trembled for your safety! Also I kept
1 Cf. Ammianus 20. 10, per Besontionem Viennam hie-
maturus abscessit. Besontio or Vesontio (Besancon), the
capital of the Sequani, is described in much the same language
by Caesar, Gallic War 1. 38.
2 Doubs.
8 Ammianus 21. 7, Zosimus 3. 10 describe this march.
23
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
θεῶν (αὐτὸς μὲν οὐ τολμῶν' οὐ yap ὑπέμενον οὔτε
ἰδεῖν τοιοῦτον οὔτε ἀκοῦσαι οὐδέν, οἷον ἄν τις ὑπέ-
λαβε δύνασθαι τηνικαῦτα “περὶ σὲ γίγνεσθαι, ἐπέ-
δὲ + e \ δὲ \ /
τρεπον δὲ ἄλλοις), οἱ θεοὶ δὲ ταραχὰς μέν τινας
Μ θ \ \ n 1 25 7 δὲ /
ἔσεσθαι περὶ σὲ περιφανῶς 1 ἐδήλουν, οὐδὲν μέντοι
δεινὸν οὐδὲ εἰς ἔργον τῶν ἀθέων 3 βουλευμάτων.
? 9 P..A Ὁ , Ν \ ,
AX’ ὁρᾷς ὅτι μεγάλα Kal πολλὰ παρέδραμον.
4 , / 7 a \ i0 / “
μάλιστά σε πυθέσθαι ἄξιον, πῶς μὲν ἀθρόως τῆς
ἐπιφανείας ἠσθόμεθα τῶν θεῶν, τίνα δὲ τρόπον τὸ
al “ 3 / a 4
τοσοῦτον τῶν ἐπιβούλων πλῆθος διαπεφεύγαμεν,
κτείναντες οὐδένα, χρήματα οὐδενὸς ἀφελόμενοι,
4 \ / ἃ bl] / ιν >
φυλαξάμενοι δὲ μόνον ods ἐλαμβάνομεν ἐπ᾽ avTo-
, a \ = » > / ᾽ \
φώρῳ. ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἴσως ov γράφειν, ἀλλὰ
7 7 3 δέ \ 4 HOE j
φράζειν χρή, οἶμαι δέ σε καὶ μάλα ἡδέως πεύσε-
σθαι. θρησκεύομεν τοὺς θεοὺς ἀναφανδόν, καὶ τὸ
πλῆθος τοῦ συγκατελθόντος μοι στρατοπέδου θεο-
σεβές ἐστιν. ἡμεῖς φανερῶς βουθυτοῦμεν. ἀπε-
δώκαμεν τοῖς θεοῖς χαριστήρια ὃ ἑκατόμβας πολ-
λάς. ἐμὲ κελεύουσιν οἱ θεοὶ τὰ πάντα ἁγνεύειν
εἰς δύναμιν, καὶ πείθομαί γε καὶ προθύμως αὐτοῖς"
lal 7
μεγάλους γὰρ καρποὺς τῶν πόνων ἀποδώσειν
φασίν, ἢν μὴ ῥᾳθυμῶμεν. ἦλθε πρὸς ἡμᾶς Εῤά-
a ᾽ “-“
WALOS Pres Veh s eee et eee OU Ia an
Tiyuwpeévov Oeod.) ... 1...
Πολλὰ γοῦν ἐπέρχεταί μοι πρὸς τούτοις, ἀλλὰ
χρὴ ταμιεύσασθαί τινα καὶ τῇ παρουσίᾳ τῇ σῇ.
1 φανερῶς XY. 3 ἀθέων Asmus, ἀθέσμων MSS., Hertlein.
3 After χαριστήρια XY have περὶ ἡμῶν.
* In Hertlein the letter ends at Εὐάγριος. In XY (Papado-
poulos) a lacuna of about 82 letters follows.
> A lacuna follows in XY.
24
TO MAXIMUS, THE PHILOSOPHER
enquiring of the gods—not that I ventured to do this
myself, for I could not endure to see or hear any-
thing so terrible as oneymight have supposed would
be happening to you at that time, but I entrusted
the task to others; and the gods did indeed show
clearly that certain troubles would befal you, nothing
terrible however, nor to indicate that impious
counsels would be carried out.!
But you see that I have passed over many im-
portant events. Above all, it is right that you
should learn how I became all at once conscious of
the very presence of the gods, and in what manner
I escaped the multitude of those who plotted against
me, though I put no man to death, deprived no man
of his property, and only imprisoned those whom 1
caught red-handed. All this, however, I ought per-
haps to tell you rather than write it, but I think
you will be very glad to be informed of it. I
worship the gods openly, and the whole mass of the
troops who are returning with me worship the gods.” κυ
I sacrifice oxen in public. I have offered to the
gods many hecatombs as thank-offerings. The gods
command me to restore their worship in its utmost
purity, and I obey them, yes, and with a good will.
For they promise me great rewards for my labours,
if only I am not remiss, Evagrius? has joined me,
. of the god whom we honour... .
Many things occur to my mind, besides what I
have written, but I must store up certain matters
‘to tell you when you are with me. Come here,
1 Julian’s friends in the East were in danger after his
quarrel with Constantius.
2 Cf. Libanius, Oration 18. 114,
® Cf. Letter 25, To Evagrius.
25
382
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
δεῦρο οὖν, τοὺς θεούς σοι, τὴν ταχίστην, εἴτε δύο
εἴτε πλείοσι χρησάμενος ὀχήμασιν. ἀπέστειλα
δὲ καὶ δύο τῶν πιστοτάτων ὑπηρετῶν, ὧν ὁ μὲν
εἷς ἄχρι τοῦ στρατοπέδου παραπέμψει σε" ἕτερος
δὲ ἐξεληλυθέναι σε καὶ ἥκειν ἤδη μηνύσει" πότε-
ρον δὲ ὑπὸ ποτέρου γενέσθαι θέλεις αὐτὸς τοῖς
νεανίσκοις σήμηνον.
9
᾿Ιουλιανῷ θείῳ
Τρίτης ὥρας νυκτὸς ἀρχομένης, οὐκ ἔχων οὐδὲ
τὸν ὑπογράψοντα ὃ διὰ τὸ πάντας ἀσχόλους
εἶναι, μόλις ἴσχυσα πρὸς σὲ ταῦτα γράψαι.
ζῶμεν διὰ τοὺς θεοὺς ἐλευθερωθέντες τοῦ παθεῖν
A “Ὁ \ ? 7 ᾿Ν δὲ «ς "H A
ἢ δρᾶσαι Ta ἀνήκεστα' μάρτυς δὲ ὁ “Ἥλιος, ὃν
μάλιστα πάντων ἱκέτευσα συνάρασθαί μοι, καὶ
ὁ βασιλεὺς Ζεύς, ὡς οὐπώποτε ηὐξάμην ἀποκτεῖ-
vat Κωνστάντιον, μᾶλλον δὲ ἀπηυξάμην. τί οὗν.
9 θ 3 ὃ / e θ \ ὃ ἠδ > Eis
ἦλθον ; ἐπειδή μοι οἱ θεοὶ διαρρήδην ἐκέλευσαν,
σωτηρίαν μὲν ἐπαγγελλόμενοι πειθομένῳ, μένοντι
δὲ ὃ μηδεὶς θεῶν ποιήσειεν' ἄλλως τε STL καὶ
1 πολλὰ « « «© « « σήμηνον restored from XY, not in
Hertlein.
2 Hertlein 13; after θείῳ X adds αὐτοῦ.
3 Hertlein suggests, MSS. ὑπογράφοντα.
? Maximus did not join Julian at Naissa, but, as Eunapius
relates in his Life of Chrysanthius, p. 554 (Wright), he
lingered at Ephesus in the vain attempt to secure favourable
omens for the journey, and finally joined Julian at Constanti-
26
TO HIS UNCLE JULIAN
then, in the name of the gods, as quickly as you
can, and use two or more public carriages. More-
over, I have sent two of my most trusted servants,
one of whom will escort you as far as my head-
quarters; the other will inform me that you have
set out and will forthwith arrive. Do you yourself
tell the youths which of them you wish to under-
take which of these tasks.1
9
To his Uncle Julian 2
Tue third hour of the night has just begun, and
as I have no secretary to dictate to because they
are all occupied, I have with difficulty made the
effort to write this to you myself. I am alive, by
the grace of the gods, and have been freed from the
necessity of either suffering or inflicting irreparable
ill. But the Sun, whom of all the gods I besought
most earnestly to assist me, and sovereign Zeus also,
bear me witness that never for a moment did I wish
to slay Constantius, but rather I wished the contrary.
Why then did I come? Because the gods expressly_—
ordered me,‘ and promised me safety if I obeyed
them, but if I stayed, what I pray no god may do to
me! Furthermore I came because, having been de-
nople early in 362; cf. Eunapius, Life of Aedesius, pp.
440 foll.
2 For Count Julian, see Introduction.
% A proverbial phrase; cf. Letter to Nilus, p. 159. The
sudden death of Constantius had simplified Julian’s course.
4 Cf. Vol. 3, Letter to the Athenians 2843-285p, for Julian’s
own account of the mutiny against Constantius and the sign
given by the gods.
27
361
Late
Novem-
ber or
early
Decem-
ber
From
Naissa
ΚΝ ish)
‘,
}
389
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
πολέμιος ἀποδειχθεὶς @unv φοβῆσαι μόνον καὶ
> e / A Ε] 7 Ν ro >
“εἰς ομιλίας ἥξειν ἐπιεικεστέρας τὰ πράγματα" εἰ
δὲ μάχῃ κριθείη, τῇ τύχῃ τὰ πάντα καὶ τοῖς θεοῖς
ἐπιτρέψας περιμένειν ὅπερ ἂν αὐτῶν τῇ φιλαν-
θρωπίᾳ δόξῃ.
10
» Ν 3 ὔ 1
TovAravos Evénpie
Ζῶμεν ὑπὸ τῶν θεῶν σωθέντες" ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ δὲ
αὐτοῖς θῦε τὰ χαριστήρια. θύσεις δὲ οὐχ ὑπὲρ
> Qn nt lal
ἑνὸς ἀνδρός, ἀλλ᾽ ὑπὲρ τοῦ κοινοῦ τῶν ᾿ Ελλήνων.
εἰ δέ σοι σχολὴ καὶ μέχρι τῆς Κωνσταντίνου
πόλεως διαβῆναι, τιμησαίμην ἂν οὐκ ὀλίγου τὴν
σὴν ἐντυχίαν.
1
᾿Ιουλιανὸς Λεοντίῳ 5
Ὃ λογοποιὸς ὁ Θούριος ὦτα εἶπεν ἀνθρώποις
al [4 a ‘
ὀφθαλμῶν ἀπιστότερα. τούτῳ δ᾽ ἐπὶ σοῦ τὴν
/
ἐναντίαν ἔχω γνώμην ἐγώ" πιστότερα γάρ ἐστί
μοι τὰ ὦτα τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν. οὐ γάρ, εἴποτε εἶδόν
σε δεκάκις, οὕτως ἂν ἐπίστευσα τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς,
1 Hertlein 69. 2 Hertlein 22.
1 An Armenian eunuch, a pagan who had been kidnapped,
sold into slavery, and finally attained to the office of court
chamberlain and confidential adviser to Constans and
Julian; see Ammianus 16. 7. 4. He was employed by
Julian in Gaul as a trusted messenger to Constantius at
Milan ; Ammianus 20. 8. 19.
.28
TO LEONTIUS
clared a public enemy, I meant to frighten him
merely, and that our quarrel should result in inter-
course on more friendly terms; but if we should
have to decide the issue by battle, I meant to entrust
_ the whole to Fortune and to the gods, and so await
whatever their clemency might decide.
10
To Eutherius 1
I am alive, and have been saved by the gods.
Therefore offer sacrifices to them on my behalf, as
thank-offerings. Your sacrifice will be not for one
man only, but for the whole body of Hellenes.? If
you have time to travel as far as Constantinople I
shall feel myself highly honoured by your presence.
11
Τὸ Leontius
Tue Thurian historian? said that men’s ears are
less to be trusted than their eyes.4 But in your
ease I hold the opposite opinion from this, since
here my ears are more trustworthy than my eyes.
For not if I had seen you ten times would I have
trusted my eyes as I now trust my ears, instructed
_ *In the fourth century this word has lost some of its
national meaning, and is used of pagans as opposed to
Christians, especially by Julian. The sophists of that period
called themselves and all students of rhetoric ‘‘ Hellenes.”
3 Herodotus.
4 Herodotus 1. 8; cf. Julian Oration 1. 370, and 4, 145p.
29
861
About
Decem-
ber Ist
From
Naissa
(Nish)
861
From
Naissa
(Nish)
or Con
stanti-
nople
383
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
ὡς viv ταῖς ἀκοαῖς πιστεύω ταῖς ἐμαυτοῦ, παρ᾽
ἀνδρὸς οὐδαμῶς οἵου τε ψεύδεσθαι δεδιδαγμένος,
ὅτι πάντα ἀνὴρ ὧν αὐτὸς σεαυτοῦ κρείττων εἶ
περὶ τὸ ῥέξαι, φησὶν Ὅμηρος, χερσί τε καὶ ποσίν.
ἐπιτρέψαντες οὖν σοι τὴν τῶν ὅπλων χρῆσιν
ἀπεστείλαμέν τε πανοπλίαν, ἥτις 1 τοῖς πεζοῖς
ἁρμόττει" " ἐγκατελέξαμέν τέ σε τῷ τῶν οἰκείων
συντάγματι.3
12
Μαξίμῳ φιλοσόφῳ 3
᾿Αλέξανδρον μὲν τὸν Μακεδόνα τοῖς Ὁμήρου
ποιήμασιν ἐφυπνώττειν λόγος, ἵνα δὴ καὶ νύκτωρ
καὶ μεθ᾽ ἡμέραν αὐτοῦ τοῖς πολεμικοῖς ὁμιλῇ
συνθήμασιν' ἡμεῖς δέ σου ταῖς ἐπιστολαῖς ὥσπερ
παιωνίοις τισὶ φαρμάκοις συγκαθεύδομεν, καὶ οὐ
διαλείπομεν ἐντυγχάνοντες ἀεὶ καθάπερ νεαραῖς
ἔτι καὶ πρῶτον εἰς χεῖρας ἡκούσαις. εἴπερ οὖν
ἐθέλεις ἡμῖν εἰκόνα τῆς σῆς παρουσίας τὴν ἐν
τοῖς γράμμασιν ὁμιλίαν προξενεῖν, γράφε καὶ μὴ
λῆγε συνεχῶς τοῦτο πράττων' μᾶλλον δὲ ἧκε
σὺν θεοῖς, ἐνθυμούμενος ὡς ἡμῖν γ᾽ ἕως ἂν amis
1 Hertlein suggests, MSS. ἢ τέως.
2 MSS. add κουφοτέρα δέ ἐστιν αὕτη τῆς τῶν ἱππέων deleted
by Wyttenbach, Hertlein brackets.
3 MSS. add γίνονται δὲ ἀπὸ τῶν ὁπλοφορησάντων οὗτοι καὶ
στρατευσαμένων deleted by Wyttenbach, Hertlein brackets,
4 Hertlein 15.
1 An echo of Demosthenes, Olynthiae 2. 17.
20
TO THE PHILOSOPHER MAXIMUS
as I have been by a man who is in no wise capable
of speaking falsely,1 that, while in all respects you
show yourself a man, you surpass yourself? in your
achievements ‘‘ with hand and foot,” as Homer says.
I therefore entrust you with the employment of
arms, and have despatched to you a complete suit
of armour such as is adapted for theinfantry. More-
over I have enrolled you in my household corps.*
12
To the philosopher Maximus
Tuere is a tradition® that Alexander of Macedon
used to sleep with Homer's poems under his pillow,
in order that by night as well as by day he might
busy himself with his martial writings. But I sleep
with your letters as though they were healing drugs
of some sort, and I do not cease to read them con-
stantly as though they were newly written and had
only just come into my hands. Therefore if you are
willing to furnish me with intercourse by means of
letters, as a semblance of your own society, write,
and do not cease to do so continually. Or rather
come,® with heaven’s help, and consider that while
2 Cf. Julian, Oration 7. 2358, Lelter to Themistius 264p,
Caesars 309pD, 327c.
3 Odyssey 8. 148; the phrase is there used of the athletic
sports of the Phaeacians.
4 i.e. the protectores domestici ; cf. Symmachus, Letter 67.
‘In C.I.L. III. 5670a (Dessau 774), a Leontius is mentioned as
praepositus militum auxiliarium in 370 A.D.
5 Plutarch, Alexander 12.
ὁ Ammianus 22. 7. 3 describes Julian’s effusive greeting of
Maximus, for which he interrupted a meeting of the Senate.
31
End of
361 or
early in
362
From
Con-
stanti-«
nople
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
399 of “ > “Ὁ na
οὐδ᾽ ὅτι ζῶμεν εἰπεῖν ἔστιν, εἰ μὴ ὅσον τοῖς παρὰ
lal 7 a
σοῦ γραφομένοις ἐντυχεῖν ἔξεστιν.
13
‘Ez / 2 “. f > / 1
ρμογένει ἀπούπάρχῳ Αἰγύπτου
389 δός μοί τι κατὰ τοὺς μελικτὰς 3 εἰπεῖν ῥήτορας,
D°*O παρ᾽ ἐλπίδα σεσωσμένος ἐγώ, ὦ παρ᾽ ἐλπίδας ὃ
3 ’ὔ Ψ ὃ , \ / 7)
AKNKOWS, OTL OLaTrepevyas τὴν τρικέφαλον ὕδραν,
, \
οὔτι pa Δία τὸν ἀδελφόν φημι Κωνστάντιον"
ἀλλ᾽ ἐκεῖνος μὲν ἣν οἷος ἦν" ἀλλὰ τὰ περὶ αὐτὸν
᾽ “Ὁ ἴω a
θηρία πᾶσιν ἐποφθαλμιῶντα, ἃ κἀκεῖνον ἐποίει
χαλεπώτερον, οὐδὲ τὸ καθ᾽ ἑαυτὸν παντάπασι
390 πρᾷον, εἰ καὶ ἐδόκει πολλοῖς τοιοῦτος. ἐκείνῳ
μὲν οὖν, ἐπειδὴ μακαρίτης ἐγένετο, κούφη γῆ,
/ / / sage Boe , o
καθάπερ λέγεται" τούτους δὲ ἀδίκως μέν TL παθεῖν
οὐκ ἂν ἐθέλοιμι, ἴστω Ζεύς" ἐπειδὴ δὲ αὐτοῖς
ἐπανίστανται πολλοὶ κατήγοροι, δικαστήριον
3 / \ ’ 9 / / \ \
ἀποκεκλήρωται. σὺ δέ, ὦ φίλε, πάρει, καὶ παρὰ
Β δύναμιν ἐπείχθητι' θεάσασθαι γάρ σε πάλαι τε
εὔχομαι νὴ τοὺς θεούς, καὶ νῦν εὐμενέστατα ὅτι
διεσώθης ἀκηκοώς, ἥκειν παρακελεύομαι.
1 Hertlein 23.
2 μειλιχίους ἢ Cumont suggests,
3 Asmus suggests ἐλπίδα σέ.
1 Hermogenes had been Prefect of Egypt before 328, since
his name does not occur in the list of prefects after that year,
which is extant complete.
32
TO HERMOGENES
you are away I cannot be said to be alive, except in
so far as 1 am able to read what you have written.
13
To Hermogenes, formerly Prefect of Egypt?
Suffer me to say, in the language of the poetical
rhetoricians, O how little hope had I of safety! O
how little hope had I of hearing that you had
escaped the three-headed hydra! Zeus be my wit-
ness that I do not mean my brother Constantius 2?—
nay, he was what he was—but the wild beasts who
surrounded him and cast their baleful eyes on all
men; for they made him even harsher than he was
by nature, though on his own account he was by no
means of a mild disposition, although he seemed so
to many. But since he is now one of the blessed
dead, may the earth lie lightly on him, as the saying
is! Nor should I wish, Zeus be my witness, that
these others should be punished unjustly; but since
many accusers are rising up against them, I have
appointed a court? to judge them. Do you, my
friend, come hither, and hasten, even if it task your
strength. For, by the gods, I have long desired to
see you, and, now that I have learned to my great
joy that you are safe and sound, | bid you come.
2 Cf. for Julian’s attitude to Constantius, Misopogon 8578.
8 The special commission appointed by Julian to try his
enemies sat at Chalcedon in Dec. 361.. Its work is described
by Ammianus 22. 3; Libanius, Oration 18. 152. Among the
judges were Mamertinus the rhetorician and Nevitta the
Goth, who were the Consuls designate for 362, and Sallust.
33
VOL, III. D
861
Decem-
ber ?
From
Con-
stanti-
nople
373
D
374
404
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
14
Προαιρεσίῳ }
Τί δὲ οὐκ ἔμελλον ἐγὼ ἸΠροαιρέσιον τὸν καλὸν
προσαγορεύειν, ἄνδρα ἐπαφιέντα τοῖς νέοις λόγους,
ὥσπερ οἱ ποταμοὶ τοῖς πεδίοις ἐπαφιᾶσι τὰ ῥεύ-
ματα, καὶ ξηλοῦντα τὸν Περικλέα κατὰ τοὺς
λόγους ἔξω τοῦ συνταράττειν καὶ ξυγκυκᾶν τὴν
Ἑλλάδα; θαυμάζειν δ᾽ οὐ χρὴ τὴν Λακωνικὴν εἰ
πρὸς σὲ βραχυλογίαν ἐμιμησάμην. ὑμῖν γὰρ
πρέπει τοῖς “σοφοῖς μακροὺς πάνυ καὶ μεγάλους
ποιεῖσθαι λόγους, ἡμῖν δὲ ἀρκεῖ καὶ τὰ βραχέα
πρὸς ὑμᾶς. ἴσθι δῆτά μοι πολλὰ πανταχόθεν
κύκλῳ πράγματα ἐπιρρεῖν. τῆς καθόδου τὰς
αἰτίας, εἰ μὲν ἱστορίαν γράψεις,Σ) ἀκριβέστατα
ἀπαγγελῶ σοι, δοὺς τὰς ἐπιστολὰς ἀποδείξεις
ἐγγράφους" εἰ δ᾽ ἔγνωκας ταῖς μελέταις καὶ τοῖς
γυμνάσμασιν εἰς τέλος ἄχρι γήρως προσκαρτερεῖν,
οὐδὲν ἴσως μου τὴν σιωπὴν μέμψῃ.
15
’
᾿Αετίῳ ἐπισκόπῳ 3
Κοινῶς μὲν ἅπασι τοῖς ὁπωσοῦν ὑπὸ τοῦ ακα-
μ,
ρίτου Κωνσταντίου πεφυγαδευμένοις ἕνεκεν τῆς
1 Hertlein 2. 2 Cobet, γράφεις MSS. Hertlein.
3 Hertlein 31.
* The Armenian sophist, a Christian, who taught at
Athens. For his Life see EKunapius, Lives of the Sophists and
Philosophers, pp. 477-515 (Wright). See Introduction.
* Aristophanes, Acharnians 531, ξυνεκύκα τὴν Ἑλλάδα.
34
|
TO BISHOP AETIUS
14
To Prohaeresius 1
Wuy should I not address the excellent Pro-
haeresius, a man who has poured forth his eloquence
on the young as rivers pour their floods over the
plain; who rivals Pericles in his discourses, except
that he does not agitate and embroil Greece ἢ 2
But you must not be surprised that I have imitated
Spartan brevity in writing to you. For though it
becomes sages like you to compose very long and
impressive discourses, from me to you even a few
words are enough. Moreover you must know that
from all quarters at once I am inundated by affairs.
As for the causes of my return,’ if you are going
to write an historical account I will make a very
precise report for you, and will hand over to you the
letters,4 as written evidence. But if you have re-
solved to devote your energies to the last, till old
age,® to your rhetorical studies and exercises, you
will perhaps not reproach me for my silence.
15
To Bishop Aetius ©
I nave remitted their sentence of exile for all in
common who were banished in whatever fashion by
Constantius of blessed memory, on account of the
Ὁ ὦν 6. from Gaul, when he marched against the Emperor
᾿ Constantius, in 361. This letter was probably written after
his triumphal entry into Constantinople on December 11th.
4 For the correspondence between Julian and Constantius
cf. Ammianus Marcellinus 20. 8. 5.
5 Prohaeresius was already in the late eighties.
ὁ See Introduction under Aetius.
35
p 2
End of
361 (or
early
in 362)
From
Con-
stanti-
nople
862 Jan,
From
Con-
stanti-
nople
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
C τῶν Γαλιλαίων a ἀπονοίας ἀνῆκα τὴν φυγήν, σοὶ 1"
δὲ οὐκ ἀνίημι, μόνον, ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ παλαιᾶς
γνώσεώς τε καὶ συνηθείας μεμνημένης ἀφικέσθαι
προτρέπω μέχρις ἡμῶν. χρήσῃ δὲ ὀχήματι δη-
μοσίῳ μέχρι τοῦ στρατοπέδου τοῦ ἐμοῦ καὶ ἑνὶ
παρίππῳ.
16
Θεοδώρῳ apytepet.”
Δεξάμενός σου τὴν ἐπιστολὴν ἥσθην μέν, ws
εἰκός" τί γὰρ οὐκ ἔμελλον ἄνδρα ἑταῖρον ἐμοὶ καὶ
φίλων φίλτατον σῶν εἶναι πυνθανόμενος ; ; ws δὲ
καὶ ἀφελὼν τὸν ἐπικείμενον δεσμὸν ἐπήειν πολ-
λάκις, οὐκ ἂν ἐγὼ παραστῆσαι τῷ λόγῳ δυναίμην,
τίς καὶ ὁποῖος ἐγενόμην" γαλήνης ἐμπιπλάμενος
καὶ θυμηδίας, ὥσπερ εἰκόνα τινὰ τοῦ γενναίου σου
καθορῶν τρόπου τὴν ἐπιστολὴν ἠσπαξόμην'
ὑπὲρ ἧς τὰ μὲν καθέκαστα γράφειν μακρὸν ἂν
εἴη καὶ περιττῆς ἴσως ἀδολεσχίας οὐκ ἔξω. ἃ
δ᾽ οὖν ἐπήνεσα διαφερόντως, shaper εἰπεῖν οὐκ ἂν
ὀκνήσαιμι, πρῶτον μέν, ὅτι τὴν ὃ παροινίαν ἣν
εἰς ὑμᾶς * ὁ τῆς Ἑλλάδος " ἡγεμὼν πεπαρῴνηκεν,
εἴ γε τὸν τοιοῦτον ἡγεμόνα χρὴ καλεῖν ἀλλὰ μὴ
τύραννον, οὔπω βαρέως ὃ ἤνεγκας, οὐδὲν ἡγού-
1 σοὶ Hertlein suggests, σὲ MSS.
2 Papadopoulos 3* in Rheinisches Museum 42. 1887 ; not in
Hertlein.
3 τὴν παροινίαν -- --Νέρων is quoted by Suidas, Musonius ; he
omits εἴ γε--τύραννον. Hertlein, who gives this extract as
frag. 3, follows Suidas.
4 ἡμᾶς MS., ὑμᾶς Maas, see Introduction under Theodorus.
5 Asmus suggests Ἑλλησπόντου, but this is too violent a
change.
36
TO THE HIGH-PRIEST THEODORUS
-folly of the Galilaeans.!. But in your case, I not
only remit your exile, but also, since I am mindful
of our old acquaintance and intercourse, I invite you
to come tome. You will use a public conveyance 2
as far as my headquarters, and one extra horse.
16
To the High-priest Theodorus ὃ
WueEn I received your letter I was delighted, of
course. How could I feel otherwise on learning
that my comrade and dearest friend is safe? And
when I had removed the fastening from it and
perused it many times, I cannot convey to you in
words my feelings and state of mind. I was filled
with serenity and felicity and welcomed the letter
as though I beheld in it an image, so to speak, of
your noble disposition. To try to answer it point
by point would take too long and perhaps I could
not avoid excessive garrulity ; but at any rate I shall
not hesitate to say what it was that I especially
approved. In the first place, the fact that the
insolent behaviour to you of the Governor of Greece,
if indeed a man of that sort can be called a Governor
and not a tyrant, did not provoke your resentment,
1 Julian always scoffed at the disputes of the Arians with
the various other sects of the Church.
2 7.e. he was given the privilege of using an official
. carriage, provided by the state.
8 For the question of the authenticity of this letter see
Introduction, on Theodorus,
ὁ MS. οὕτω βαθέως, Weil οὕτω σταθερῶς, Hercher, Hertlein
οὔτοι βαρέως, Papadopoulos οὔπω βαρέως.
37
862 Jan.
(or end
of 361)
From
Con-
stanti-
nople.
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
4, »
μενος τούτων εἰς σὲ γεγονέναι. τό γε μὴν τῇ
πόλει βοηθεῖν ἐκείνῃ βούλεσθαι καὶ προθυμεῖσθαι,
\ A > / \ ὃ / ᾽ / 1 b]
περὶ ἣν ἐποιήσω τὰς διατριβάς, ἐναργές 1 ἐστι
/ ᾿ a
φιλοσόφου γνώμης 5 texunpiov' ὥστε μοι δοκεῖ
/
TO μὲν πρότερον Σωκράτει προσήκειν, TO δεύτερον
ἘΣ AR gt \ \ " “
έ, οἶμαι, Μουσωνίῳ" ἐκεῖνος μὲν γὰρ ἔφη, ὅτι
» a a
μὴ θεμιτὸν ἄνδρα σπουδαῖον πρός του τῶν
χειρόνων καὶ φαύλων βλαβῆναι, ὁ δὲ ἐπεμέλετο
Γυάρων 8 ἡνίκα ὁ φεύγειν αὐτὸν ἐπέταττε Νέρων.
ταῦτα ἐγὼ τῆς ἐπιστολῆς τῆς σῆς ἐπαινέσας, τὸ
,
τρίτον οὐκ οἶδα ὅντινα τρόπον ἀποδέξομαι'
γράφεις γὰρ κελεύων σημαίνειν ὅ τι ἄν μοι παρὰ
, 7΄ > \ Δ , "ἊΣ τ πὰ" Ἃ ΄
μέλος πράττειν αὐτὸς ἢ λέγειν δοκῇς" ἐγὼ δέ,
OTL μὲν πλέον ἐμαυτῷ νῦν ἢ σοὶ τῶν τοιούτων
a e s 4 \ ΝΜ
δεῖν ὑπολαμβάνω παραινέσεων, πολλὰ ἔχων
>] a 3 9 > a \ \ 3 »
εἰπεῖν, ἐς αὖθις ἀναβαλοῦμαι. τὸ μὲν οὖν αἴτημα
τυχὸν οὐδὲ σοὶ προσήκει' περίεστι γάρ σοι
καὶ σχολή, καὶ φύσεως ἔχεις εὖ, καὶ φιλοσοφίας
ἐρᾷς, εἴπερ τις ἄλλος τῶν πώποτε. τρία δὲ ἅμα
ταῦτα ξυνελθόντα ἤρκεσεν ἀποφῆναι τὸν ᾿Αμφί-
ονα τῆς παλαιᾶς μουσικῆς εὑρετήν, χρόνος,
1 ἐναργὲς is omitted by Suidas in his quotation of the
passage.
2 ψυχῆς Suidas.
3 βαρῶν Suidas, quoting from a faulty MS.
4 ἡνίκα Suidas ; MS. ὁπηνίκα, not Julianic.
ὃ περίεστι---δεόμενοι quoted from a more complete text by
Suidas, Amphion; given by Hertlein as frag. 1; τὸ μὲν---
προσήκει omitted by Papadopoulos Y.
38
TO THE HIGH-PRIEST THEODORUS
because you considered that none of these things
had to do with you. Then again, that you are
willing and eager to aid that city! in which you
had spent your time is a clear proof of the philo-
sophic mind; so that in my opinion the former
course is worthy of Socrates, the latter, I should say,
of Musonius. For Socrates declared? that heaven
would not permit a righteous man to be harmed by
anyone inferior to him and worthless, while Musonius
concerned himself with the welfare of Gyara? when
Nero decreed his exile. These two points in your
letter I approve, but I am at a loss how to take the
third. For you write to urge me to warn you when-
ever I think that you yourself do or say anything
out of tune. For my part I could give you many
proofs that I believe myself to be more in need than
you are of such advice at the present time, but I will
put that off till later. However the request is
perhaps not even suitable for you to make; for
you have abundant leisure, excellent natural gifts,
and you love philosophy as much as any man who
ever lived. And these three things combined
sufficed to make Amphion known as the inventor
of ancient music, namely, leisure, divine inspiration
1 We cannot identify this city. Theodorus may have
improved its water supply, which would give point to the
allusion to Musonius at Gyara below.
2 Plato, Apology 30D, Julian, Oration 2. 098.
8 The Emperors banished offenders to this barren island,
one of the Cyclades. For the discovery of water there by
Musonius see Philostratus, Life of Apollonius 7. 16. The
Nero of Philostratus is an imaginary dialogue with Musonius
at Corinth, where he is supposed to have been set by Nero to
dig the Corinthian canal; Julian praises Musonius in Vol. 2,
To Themistius 2650, D,
39
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
θεοῦ πνεῦμα, ἔρως τε 3 ὑμνωδίας" οὐδὲ 8 yap ἡ
τῶν ὀργάνων ἔνδεια πρὸς ταῦτα πέφυκεν ἀντι-
τάττεσθαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ ταῦτα ῥᾳδίως ἂν ὁ τῶν
τριῶν τούτων μέτοχος ἐξεύροι. ἢ γὰρ οὐχὶ
τοῦτον αὐτὸν ἀκοῇ παραδεδέγμεθα οὐ τὰς
ἁρμονίας μόνον, αὐτὴν δὲ ἐπ᾽ αὐταῖς ἐξευρεῖν τὴν
λύραν, εἴτε δαιμονιωτέρᾳ χρησάμενον ἐπινοίᾳ,
εἴτε τινὶ θείᾳ δόσει διά τινα συμμαχίαν ἀμήχανον;
καὶ τῶν παλαιῶν οἱ πλεῖστοι τοῖς τρισὶ τούτοις
ἐοίκασι μάλιστα προσσχόντες οὔτι πλαστῶς
φιλοσοφῆσαι, οὐδενὸς ἄλλου δεόμενοι. χρὴ οὖν
σε παρίστασθαι καὶ διὰ τῶν ἐπιστολῶν τὰ
πρακτέα καὶ τὰ μὴ “παραινεῖν ἡμῖν 4 προθύμως"
ὁρῶμεν γὰρ καὶ τῶν στρατευομένων. οὐ τοὺς
εἰρηνεύοντας συμμαχίας δεομένους, τοὺς πονου-
μένους δέ, οἶμαι, τῷ πολέμῳ, καὶ τῶν κυβερνητῶν
οὐχ οἱ μὴ πλέῤντες τοὺς πλέοντας παρακαλοῦσιν,
οἱ ναυτιλλόμενοι δὲ τοὺς σχολὴν ἄγοντας. οὕτως
ἐξ ἀρχῆς δίκαιον ἐφάνη τοὺς σχολὴν ἄγοντας
τοῖς ἐπὶ τῶν ἔργων ἀμύνειν καὶ παρεστάναι καὶ
τὸ πρακτέον ὑφηγεῖσθαι, ἐπειδάν, οἶμαι, τὰ αὐτὰ
πρεσβεύωσι. ταῦτα διανοούμενόν σε προσήκει
τοῦθ᾽ ὅπερ ἀξιοῖς παρ᾽ ἡμῶν εἰς σὲ γίνεσθαι,
δρᾶν, καὶ εἴ σοι φίλον, ταυτὶ ξυνθώμεθα, ἵν᾽ ἐγὼ
μέν, ὅ τι ἄν μοι φαίνηται περὶ τῶν σῶν ἁπάντων,
1 θεοῦ πνεῦμα Suidas, Hertlein; πνεῦμα θεῶν MSS. The
former is more Julianic.
* re Suidas omits. After ὕμνωδίας Suidas gives eight verses
not found in the MSS.
8 οὐδὲ---δεόμενοι Suidas quotes ; omitted by Papadopoulos
MSS. 4 ἡμῖν Buecheler adds;
40
TO THE HIGH-PRIEST THEODORUS
and a love of minstrelsy.1 For nat even the lack of
instruments avails to offset these gifts, but one who
had these three for his portion could easily invent
instruments also. Indeed, have we not received the
tradition by hearsay that this very Amphion invented
not only harmonies, but besides these the lyre itself,
by employing either an almost godlike intelligence
or some gift? of the gods in a sort of extraordinary
co-operation with them? And most of the great
ones of old seem to have attained to genuine philo-
sophy ® by setting their hearts on these three things
above all, and not to have needed anything else.
Therefore it is you who ought to stand by me and
in your letters show your willingness to advise me
what I ought to do and what not. For we observe
in the case of soldiers that it is not those of them
who are at peace who need allies, but, I should say,
those who are hard pressed in war, and in the case
of pilots those who are not at sea do not call to their
aid those who are at sea, but those who are navigating
call on those who are at leisure. Thus it has from
the very first seemed right that men who are at
leisure should help and stand by those who are
occupied with tasks, and should suggest the right
course of action, that is whenever they represent
the same interests. Itis well, then, that you should
bear this in mind and act towards me as you think I
should act towards you, and, if you like, let us make
1 Possibly an echo of the lost play of Euripides, Amphion
Srag. 192 Nauck; cf. Philostratus, Life of Apollonius 7. 34,
for a similar passage.
2 Apollo son of Zeus is said to have given the lyre to
Amphion.
3 An echo of Plato, Sophist 2160 and Laws 642c; cf. Julian,
Vol. 1, Oration 2. 828, 998.
41
426
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
πρὸς σὲ σημαίνω,1 σὺ δὲ αὖθις πρὸς ἐμέ περὶ τῶν
ἐμῶν λόγων καὶ πράξεων" ταύτης γάρ, οἶμαι, τῆς
ἀμοιβῆς οὐδὲν a ἂν ἡμῖν γένοιτο κάλλιον. ἐρρωμένον
σε ἡ θεία πρόνοια διαφυλάξαι πολλοῖς χρόνοις
ἀδελφὲ ποθεινότατε. ἴδοιμί σε διὰ ταχέων, ὡς
εὔχομαι.
17
Ζήνωνι.3
Πολλὰ μὲν καὶ ἄλλα σοι μαρτυρεῖ καὶ τῆς
ἰατρικῆς τέχνης εἰς τὰ πρῶτα ἀνήκειν, καὶ ἤθους
καὶ ἐπιεικείας καὶ βίου σωφροσύνης συμφώνως
πρὸς τὴν τέχνην ἔχειν, νῦν δὲ προσῆλθε τὸ
κεφάλαιον. τῆς μαρτυρίας" τὴν τῶν ᾿Αλεξανδρέων
πόλιν ἀπὼν ἐπιστρέφεις εἰς σεαυτόν' τοσοῦτον
αὐτῇ κέντρον ὥσπερ μέλιττα ἐγκαταλέλοιπας.3
εἰκότως" καλῶς γὰρ εἰρῆσθαι καὶ .Ομήρῳ δοκεῖ τὸ
Εἷς ἰητρὸς ἀνὴρ πολλῶν ἀντάξιος ἄλλων.
σὺ δὲ οὐκ ἰατρὸς ἁπλῶς, ἀλλὰ καὶ διδάσκαλος
τοῖς βουλομένοις τῆς τέχνης, ὥστε σχεδὸν ὃ ὃ πρὸς
τοὺς πολλούς εἰσιν οἱ ἰατροί, τοῦτο ἐκείνοις σύ.
λύει δέ σοι τὴν φυγὴν καὶ ἡ πρόφασις αὐτή, καὶ
μάλα λαμπρῶς. εἰ γὰρ διὰ Τεώργιον μετέστης
1 Weil; MS. ἐμμένω.
2 Hertlein 45 ; ἀρχιητρῶ is added to the title in x.
3 Wyttenbach, καταλέλοιπας MSS. Hertlein.
1 Zeno had been exiled by George, the Arian bishop of
Alexandria, in 360. He was a friend and correspondent, of
42
TO ZENO
this compact, that I am to point out to you what are
my views concerning all your affairs, and you in
return are to do the same for me concerning my
sayings and doings. Nothing, in my opinion, could
be more valuable for us than this reciprocity. May
divine Providence keep you in good health for long
to come, my well-beloved brother! May I see you
soon, as I pray to do!
17
To Zeno?
Tuere is indeed abundant evidence of other kinds
that you have attained to the first rank in the art of
medicine and that your morals, uprightness and tem-
perate life are in harmony with your professional skill,
But now has been added the crowning evidence.
Though absent, you are winning to your cause the
whole city of Alexandria. So keen a sting, like a
bee’s, have you left in her.?. This is natural; for I
think that Homer was right when he said “One
physician is worth many other men.” * And you are
not simply a physician, but also a teacher of that art
for those who desire to learn, so that I might almost
say that what physicians are as compared with the
mass of men, you are, compared with other physicians.
This is the reason for putting an end to your exile,
and with very great distinction for yourself. For if
it was owing to George that you were removed
Libanius. George had been murdered by the mob on
December 24th, 361.
2 For this echo of Eupolis, a sophistic commonplace, cf.
Vol. 1. Oration 1. 33a.
3 Iliad 11. 514; in our texts the line begins ἰητρὸς γάρ.
43
362
early
From
Con-
stanti-
nople
450
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
τῆς ᾿Αλεξανδρείας, οὐ δικαίως μετέστης, Kal
δικαιότατα ἂν ὀπίσω κατέλθοις. κάτιθι τοίνυν
ἐπίτιμος καὶ τὸ πρότερον ἔχων ἀξίωμα, καὶ
ἡμῖν κοινὴ παρ᾽ ἀμφοτέροις χάρις ἀποκείσθω,
᾿Αλεξανδρεῦσι μὲν Ζήνωνα, σοὶ δὲ ἀποδοῦσα τὴν
᾿Αλεξάνδρειαν.
181
...« τοῦθ᾽ ὅπερ ὑπάρχει τοῖς ξύλοις, οὐκ ἄξιόν
ἐστι νέμειν ἀνθρώποις ; ὑποκείσθω γὰρ ἄνθρωπον
ἱερωσύνης ἀντειλῆφθαι τυχὸν οὐκ ἄξιον οὐ χρὴ
φείδεσθαι μέχρι τοσούτου, μέχρις ἂν ἐπιγνόντες
ὡς πονηρός ἐστι καὶ τῆς λειτουργίας αὐτὸν
εἴρξαντες τὸ προπετῶς ἴσως προστεθὲν ὄνομα
τοῦ ἱερέως ὑπεύθυνον ἀποδείξωμεν ὕβρει καὶ
κολάσει καὶ ζημίᾳ; ταῦτα εἰ μὲν ἀγνοεῖς, οὐδὲ
τῶν ἄλλων ἔοικας εἰδέναι τι τῶν μετρίων. ἐπεὶ
σοὶ ποῦ μέτεστιν ἐμπειρίας ὅλως τῶν δικαίων,
ὃς οὐκ οἶσθα τί μὲν ἱερεύς, τί δὲ ἰδιώτης ; ποῦ δέ
σοι μέτεστι σωφροσύνης, ὅσπερ" ἠκίσω τοῦτον,
6 καὶ θώκων ἐχρῆν ἐξανίστασθαι; ὃ αἴσχιστον ὃ
1 Hertlein 62. The title is lost.
2 ὅσπερ for εἴπερ Reiske, Hertlein.
3% αἴσχιστον Hertlein suggests; MSS., Hertlein τὸ
αἰσχρόν.
1 Julian writes as supreme pontiff, to whom a high-priest,
perhaps Theodorus, had appealed for protection for a priest
who had been assaulted. There is no evidence that this
priest was the Pegasius of Letter 19, as Asmus thinks,
2 The first part of the letter with the title is lost.
44
TO AN OFFICIAL
from Alexandria, you were removed unjustly, and
it would be most just that you should return from
exile. Do you, therefore, return in all honour, and
in possession of your former dignity. And let the
favour that I bestow be credited to me by both
parties in common, since it restores Zeno to the
Alexandrians and Alexandria to you.
18
To an Official 4
. -7 is it not right to pay to human beings
this respect that we feel for things made of wood ?3
For let us suppose that a man who has obtained the
office of priest is perhaps unworthy of it. Ought
we not to show forbearance until we have actually
decided that he is wicked, and only then by ex-
cluding him from his official functions show that it
was the overhasty bestowal of the title of “ priest”’
that was subject to punishment by obloquy and
chastisement and a fine? If you do not know this
you are not likely to have any proper sense at all of
what is fitting. What experience can you have of
the rights of men in general if you do not know the
difference between a priest and a layman? And
what sort of self-control can you have when you
maltreated one at whose approach you ought to
have risen from your seat? For this is the most
_ 8 ὦ. 6. images of the gods. In Vol. 2, Fragment of a Letter
297A, Julian says that we must respect priests no less than
‘the stones of which altars are made. There are several close
resemblances between these two pastoral letters. Reiske
translated ξύλοις *‘ trees,” ὦ. 6. we allow them time to recover
before cutting them down. :
: 45
362
Betore
May
)2th
From
Con-
stanti-
nople
451
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
ἁπάντων καί σοι μάλιστα μήτε πρὸς θεοὺς
μήτε πρὸς ἀνθρώπους ἔχον καλῶς. οἱ μὲν τῶν
4
Γαλιλαίων ἴσως ἐπίσκοποι καὶ πρεσβύτεροι
συγκαθίζουσί L εἰ μὴ ὃ iat be ἐμέ
γκαθίξζουσί σοι, καὶ εἰ μὴ δημοσίᾳ! du ἐμέ,
a ᾿ Ν \ Σ
λάθρᾳ καὶ ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ" διὰ σὲ δὲ τέτυπται ὁ
ε uf > \ x Ss 3 \ 4 ς ᾽ ς an
ἱερεύς: ov yap ἂν ἦλθεν ἐπὶ ταύτην ὁ παρ᾽ ὑμῖν
> \ \ / \ / > > 5 /
ἀρχιερεὺς μὰ Δία τὴν δέησιν. ἀλλ᾽ ἐπειδή σοι
/ / ᾿, ΨΕ 7 a na U
πέφηνε μυθώδη τὰ Tap Opunpe, τῶν τοῦ Διδυμαίου
δεσπότου χρησμῶν ἐπάκουσον, εἴ σοι φανείη
πάλαι μὲν ἔργῳ νουθετήσας καλῶς τοὺς “λληνας,
ὕστερον δὲ τοὺς οὐ cwdppovodvtas διδάσκων τοῖς
’
λογοις" ᾿
[ 5" > a > 4 ,
Οσσοι ἐς ἀρητῆρας ἀτασθαλίῃσι νόοιο
᾿Αθανάτων ῥέζουσ᾽ ἀποφώλια, καὶ γεράεσσιν
᾿Αντία βουλεύουσιν ἀδεισιθέοισι λογισμοῖς,
Οὐκέθ᾽ ὅλην βιότοιο διεκπερόωσιν ἀταρπόν,
/ a
“Ὅσσοι περ μακάρεσσιν ἐλωβήσαντο θεοῖσιν
ὯΩν κεῖνοι θεόσεπτον ἕλον θεραπηΐδα τιμήν.
e \ ᾿ Ν > \ / »O\ \ ig /
ὁ μὲν οὖν θεὸς ov τοὺς τύπτοντας οὐδὲ τοὺς ὑβρίζ-
οντας, ἀλλὰ TOUS ἀποστεροῦντας τῶν τιμῶν εἶναι
/3 θ Ὁ > θ 4 ‘ ς δὲ / e / ΓΝ
φησί θεοῖς ἐχθρούς" ὁ δὲ τυπτήσας ἱερόσυλος ἂν
“4
εἴη. ἐγὼ τοίνυν, ἐπειδήπερ εἰμὶ KATA μὲν τὰ πάτρια
μέγας ἀρχιερεύς, ἔλαχον δὲ νῦν καὶ τοῦ Διδυμαίου
/ a /
προφητεύειν, ἀπαγορεύω σοι τρεῖς περιόδους σε-
1 δημοσίᾳ Cobet, δημοσίως Hertlein, MSS.
2 οὐ Cobet adds.
% For the lacuna after εἶναι Spanheim suggests φησί.
46
TO AN OFFICIAL
disgraceful thing of all, and for it in the eyes of
gods and men alike you are peculiarly to blame.
Perhaps the bishops and elders of the Galilaeans sit
with you, though not in public because of me, yet
secretly and in the house; and the priest has actually
been beaten by your order, for otherwise your high-
priest would not, by Zeus, have come to make this
appeal. But since what happened in Homer! seems
to you merely mythical, listen to the oracular words
of the Lord of Didymus,? that you may see clearly
that, even as in bygone days he nobly exhorted the
Hellenes in very deed, so too in later times he
admonished the intemperate in these words : ‘* Who-
soever with reckless mind works wickedness against
the priests of the deathless gods and plots against
their honours with plans that fear not the gods,
never shall he travel life’s path to the end, seeing
that he has sinned against the blessed gods whose
honour and holy service those priests have in charge.”
Thus, then, the god declares that those who even
deprive priests of their honours are detested by the
gods, not to mention those who beat and insult
them! But a man who strikes a priest has com-
mitted sacrilege. Wherefore, since by the laws of
our fathers I am supreme pontiff, and moreover have
but now received the function of prophecy from the
god of Didymus,’ I forbid you for three revolutions
1 Probably Julian refers to the wrong done to the priest
Chryses which was avenged by Apollo in liad 1.
2 Apollo. For this oracle cf. Vol. 2, Fragment of a Letter
297cp, where it is also quoted.
8 The oracle of the Didymaean Apollo was at Didyma,
Miletus, where an inscription on a column in honour of
Julian has been discovered; cf. Bulletin de correspondance
hellénique, 1877.
47
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
λήνης μὴ τοι τῶν εἰς ἱερέα μηδὲν ἐνοχλεῖν" εἰ δὲ
ἐν τούτῳ τῷ χρόνῳ φανείης ἄξιος, ἐ ἐπιστείλαντός
μοι τοῦ τῆς πόλεως ἀρχιερέως, εἰ παραδεκτὸς
εἴης ἡμῖν, ἐσαῦθις μετὰ τῶν θεῶν βουλεύσομαι.
ταύτην ἐγώ σοι τῆς προπετείας ἐπιτίθημι ζημίαν.
τὰς δὲ ἐκ τῶν θεῶν ἀρὰς πάλαι μὲν εἰώθεσαν οἱ
παλαιοὶ λέγειν καὶ γράφειν, οὐ μὴν ἔμοιγε φαί-
νεται καλῶς ἐ ἔχειν' οὐδαμοῦ “γὰρ αὐτοὶ πεποιηκότες
οἱ θεοὶ φαίνονται. καὶ ἄχλως εὐχῶν εἶναι δεῖ
διακόνους ἡμᾶς. ὅθεν οἶμαι καὶ συνεύχομαί σοι
πολλὰ λιπαρήσαντι τοὺς θεοὺς ἀδείας TUE ὧν
ἐπλημμέλησας.
195
1Πηγάσιον ἡ ἡμεῖς οὔποτ᾽ ἂν προσήκαμεν ῥᾳδίως,
εἰ μὴ σαφώς ἐπεπείσμεθα, ὃ ὅτι καὶ πρότερον εἶναι
δοκῶν τῶν Γαλιλαίων ἐπίσκοπος ἠπίστατο σέ-
βεσθαι καὶ τιμᾶν τοὺς θεούς. οὐκ ἀκοὴν ἐγώ σοι
ταῦτα ἀπαγγέλλω τῶν πρὸς ἔχθραν καὶ φιλίαν
λέγειν εἰωθότων, ἐπεὶ καὶ ἐμοὶ πάνυ διετεθρύλητο
τὰ τοιαῦτα περὶ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ναὶ μὰ τοὺς θεοὺς
ὦμην οὕτω χρῆναι μισεῖν αὐτὸν ὡς οὐδένα τῶν
πονηροτάτων. ἐπεὶ δὲ κληθεὶς εἰς τὸ στρατόπεδον
1 Hertlein 78; first published from Huarleianus 5610 by
Henning in Hermes, 1875. The title is lost.
1 We do not know the name of this city and cannot identify
the official who is in disgrace.
48
TO A PRIEST
of the moon to meddle in anything that concerns a
priest. But if during this period you appear to be
worthy, and the high-priest of the city + so writes to
me, I will thereupon take counsel with the gods
whether you may be received by us once more.
This is the penalty that I award for your rash con-
duct. As for curses from the gods, men of old in
days of old used to utter them and write them, but
I do not think that this was well done; for there
is no evidence at all that the gods themselves devised
those curses. And besides, we ought to be the
ministers of prayers, not curses. Therefore I believe
and join my prayers to yours that after earnest
supplication to the gods you may obtain pardon for
your errors.
19
To a Priest 2
I sHoutp never have favoured Pegasius unhesi-
tatingly if I had not had clear proofs that even in
former days, when he had the title of Bishop of the
Galilaeans, he was wise enough to revere and honour
the gods. This I do not report to you on hearsay
from men whose words are always adapted to their
personal dislikes and friendships, for much current
gossip of this sort about him has reached me, and
the gods know that I once thought I ought to detest
him above all other depraved persons.? But when I
_ ® Asmus is positive that this is the high-priest Theodorus,
but there is no evidence for this. He dates the letter from
Constantinople early in 362. Pegasius is otherwise unknown.
Ὁ ὦ, 6, Christians, whom Julian often calls πονηροί, * de-
praved.”
49
VOL. ΠῚ. E
362 or
early
in δύ
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
\ A
ὑπὸ τοῦ μακαρίτου Κωνσταντίου ταύτην ἐπο-
, \ ε 4 ᾽ \ na / 5, ,
ρευόμην τὴν ὁδόν, ἀπὸ τῆς Τρῳάδος ὄρθρου βαθέος
ὃ \ rE >] Ν “CX \ ‘A
ιαναστὰς ἦλθον eis τὸ Ἴλιον περὶ πλήθουσαν
? , ς δὲ e 4 , 1 \ f \
ἀγοράν. ὁ δὲ ὑπήντησέ μοι 1 Kat βουλομένῳ τὴν
πόλιν ἱστορεῖν---ἣν γάρ μοι τοῦτο πρόσχημα τοῦ
aA > \
φοιτᾶν εἰς τὰ ἱερά---περιηγητής τε ἐγένετο Kal
᾿ “ a ’
ἐξενάγηὴσέ με πανταχοῦ. ἄκουε τοίνυν ἔργα καὶ
, > ΜυΊΦ Υ > , > » /
λόγους, ἀφ᾽ ὧν ἄν τις εἰκάσειεν οὐκ ἀγνώμονα TA
πρὸς τοὺς θεοὺς αὐτόν.
¢ afl 3 ¢/ “ n a
Hp@ov ἐστιν “Exropos, ὅπου χαλκοῦς ἕστηκεν
\ of a
ἀνδριὰς ἐν ναΐσκῳ βραχεῖ. τούτῳ τὸν μέγαν
. / 3 / 5.) \ Ὁ > \
ἀντέστησαν ᾿Αχιλλέα κατὰ τὸ ὕπαιθρον. εἰ τὸν
/ 20 / / ὃ / θ ἃ / \
τόπον ἐθεάσω, γνωρίζεις δήπουθεν ὃ λέγω. τὴν
\ 9 e , > A ς , ᾽ \ ει
μὲν οὖν ἱστορίαν, δι᾿ ἣν ὁ μέγας ᾿Αχιλλεὺς ἀντι-
τεταγμένος αὐτῷ πᾶν τὸ ὕπαιθρον κατείληφεν,
ἔξεστί σοι τῶν περιηγητῶν ἀκούειν. ἐγὼ δὲ
Ν 3 / 54 a / 7
καταλαβὼν ἐμπύρους ἔτι, μικροῦ δέω φάναι
λαμπροὺς ἔτι τοὺς βωμοὺς καὶ λιπαρῶς ἀληλιμ-
μένην τὴν τοῦ “Exropos εἰκόνα, πρὸς Ἰ]ηγάσιον
ἀπιδὼν ‘Ti ταῦτα"; εἶπον, ““᾿Ιλιεῖς θύουσιν;
, / n
ἀποπειρώμενος ἠρέμα, πῶς ἔχει γνώμης: ὁ δὲ
“Kal τί τοῦτο ἄτοπον, ἄνδρα ἀγαθὸν ἑαυτῶν
/ [χά a ” yf \
πολίτην, ὥσπερ ἡμεῖς, ἔφη, “τοὺς μάρτυρας, εἰ
’ \
θεραπεύουσιν᾽᾽᾽; ἡ μὲν οὗν εἰκὼν οὐχ ὑγιής" ἡ δὲ
/ " al
προαίρεσις ἐν ἐκείνοις ἐξεταζομένη τοῖς καιροῖς
> , 7 ON \ \ A “ , ”
ἀστεία. τί δὴ TO μετὰ τοῦτο; “Βαδίσωμεν,
bd
ἔφην, “ἐπὶ τὸ τῆς ᾿Ιλιάδος ᾿Αθηνᾶς τέμενος."
1 μοι Hertlein would add.
50
TO A PRIEST
was summoned! to his headquarters by Constantius
of blessed memory I was travelling by this route,
and after rising at early dawn I came from Troas
to Ilios about the middle of the morning. Pegasius
came to meet me, as I wished to explore the city,—
this was my excuse for visiting the temples,—and
he was my guide and showed me all the sights. So
now let me tell you what he did and said, and from
it one may guess that he was not lacking in right
sentiments towards the gods.
Hector has a hero’s shrine there and his bronze
statue stands in a tiny little temple. Opposite this
they have set up a figure of the great Achilles in the
unroofed court. If you have seen the spot you will
certainly recognise my description of it. You can
learn from the guides the story that accounts for the
fact that great Achilles was set up opposite to him
and takes up the whole of the unroofed court. Now I
found that the altars were still alight, 1 might almost
say still blazing, and that the statue of Hector had
been anointed till it shone. So I looked at Pegasius
and said: “ What does this mean? Do the people
of Ilios offer sacrifices?” This was to test him
cautiously to find out his own views. He replied:
“Ts it not natural that they should worship a brave
man who was their own citizen, just as we worship
the martyrs?” Now the analogy was far from
sound; but his point of view and intentions were
those of a man of culture, if you consider the times
in which we then lived. Observe what followed.
“Let us go,” said he, “to the shrine of Athene of
1 In the winter of 354, when he was on his way from
Nicomedia to the court at Milan, after the death of Gallus ;
first he came to Alexandria Troas, and then to New Ilios.
51
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
ς \ \ 7 4 3 7 , \ b /
ὁ δὲ καὶ μάλα προθύμως ἀπήγαγέ με Kal ἀνέῳξε
Ν ὔ
τὸν νεών, καὶ ὥσπερ μαρτυρόμενος ἐπέδειξέ μοι
; a lal »
᾿πάντα ἀκριβῶς σῶα τὰ ἀγάλματα, καὶ ἔπραξεν
οὐδὲν ὧν εἰώθασιν οἱ δυσσεβεῖς ἐκεῖνοι πράττειν,
an “ fal \ “4
ἐπὶ τοῦ μετώπου τοῦ δυσσεβοῦς TO ὑπόμνημα
: ΄΄ο Ψ lal
σκιωγραφοῦντες, οὐδὲ ἐσύριττεν, ὥσπερ ἐκεῖνοι,
’ »
αὐτὸς καθ᾽ ἑαυτόν ἡ γὰρ ἄκρα θεολογία παρ
- ᾽ an \ \
αὐτοῖς ἐστι δύο ταῦτα, συρίττειν τε πρὸς τοὺς
, an fa! , \
δαίμονας καὶ σκιαγραφεῖν ἐπὶ τοῦ μετώπου τὸν
σταυρόν.
a an ,
Avo ταῦτα ἐπηγγειλάμην. εἰπεῖν σοι" τρίτον
\ n n a
δὲ ἐλθὸν ἐπὶ νοῦν οὐκ οἶμαι χρῆναι σιωπᾶν.
> / / \ \ Kec? , e > /
ἠκολούθησέ μοι καὶ πρὸς TO Αχίλλειον ὁ αὐτὸς,
\ > / \ /, “Ὁ » / \
καὶ ἀπέδειξε τὸν τάφον σῶον" ἐπεπύσμην δὲ Kal
A ee 25 > a 7 ς \ \ /
τοῦτον ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ διεσκάφθαι. ὁ δὲ Kal μάλα
A a 3 “
σεβόμενος αὐτῷ προσήει. ταῦτα εἶδον αὐτός.
lal A lal \
ἀκήκοα δὲ παρὰ τῶν viv ἐχθρῶς ἐχόντων πρὸς
/
αὐτόν, ὅτι Kal προσεύχοιτο λάθρᾳ καὶ προσκυνοίη
τὸν “ἥλιον. apa οὐκ ἂν ἐδέξω με καὶ ἰδιώτην
an n /
μαρτυροῦντα; Ths περὶ τοὺς θεοὺς διαθέσεως
ἑκάστου τίνες ἂν εἶεν ἀξιοπιστότεροι μάρτυρες
αὐτῶν τῶν θεῶν; ἡμεῖς ἂν ἱερέα ἸΠηγάσιον
a a \
ἐποιοῦμεν, εἰ συνεγνώκειμεν αὐτῷ TL περὶ τοὺς
a ,
θεοὺς δυσσεβές; εἰ δὲ ἐν ἐκείνοις τοῖς χρόνοις
Yj ’ > / a
εἴτε δυναστείας ὀρεγόμενος, εἴθ᾽, ὅπερ πρὸς ἡμᾶς
” / ς \ a a “ fal \ “
ἐφη πολλάκις, ὑπὲρ τοῦ σῶσαι τῶν θεῶν τὰ ἕδη
\ fal
τὰ ῥάκια ταῦτα περιαμπέσχετο᾽ καὶ τὴν ἀσέβειαν
1 repinunioxeto? Hertlein.
22
TO A PRIEST
llios.” Thereupon with the greatest eagerness he
led me there and opened the temple, and as though
he were producing evidence he showed me all the
statues in perfect preservation, nor did he behave
at all as those impious men do usually, I mean when
they make the sign on their impious foreheads, nor
did he hiss! to himself as they do. For these two
things are the quintessence of their theology, to hiss
at demons and make the sign of the cross on their
foreheads.
These are the two things that I promised to tell
you. But a third occurs to me which I think I
must not fail to mention. This same Pegasius went
with me to the temple of Achilles as well and
showed me the tomb in good repair; yet I had been
informed that this also had been pulled to pieces
byhim. But he approached it with great reverence ;
I saw this with my own eyes. And I have heard
from those who are now his enemies that he also
used to offer prayers to Helios and worship him
in secret. Would you not have accepted me as
a witness even if I had been merely a private
citizen? Of each man’s attitude towards the gods
who could be more trustworthy witnesses than the
gods themselves? Should I have appointed Pegasius
a priest if I had any evidence of impiety towards
the gods on his part? And if in those past days,
whether because he was ambitious for power, or, as
he has often asserted to me, he clad himself in those
‘rags in order to save the temples of the gods, and
only pretended to be irreligious so far as the name
1 Dieterich, Mithrasliturgic, pp. 40, 221, discusses the
practice in magic, and especially in the ritual of Mithras,
of hissing and whistling.
53
452
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
μέχρις ὀνόματος Uirexpivato: πέφηνε yap οὐδὲν
οὐδαμοῦ τῶν ἱερῶν ἠδικηκὼς πλὴν ὀλίγων παντά-
πασι λίθων ἐκ καλύμματος, ἵνα αὐτῷ σώζειν
ἐξῇ τὰ λοιπά τοῦτο ἐν λόγῳ ποιούμεθα καὶ
οὐκ αἰσχυνόμεθα ταῦτα περὶ αὐτὸν πράττοντες
ὅσαπερ ᾿Αφόβιος ἐποίει καὶ οἱ Γαλιλαῖοι πάντες
προσεύχονται. πάσχοντα ἰδεῖν αὐτόν; εἴ τί μοι
προσέχεις, οὐ τοῦτον μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς
ἄλλους, of μετατέθεινται, τιμήσεις, ἵν᾽ οἱ μὲν
ῥᾷον ὑπακούσωσιν ἡμῖν ἐπὶ τὰ καλὰ προ-
καλουμένοις, οἱ δ᾽ ἧττον yaipwow. εἰ δὲ τοὺς
αὐτομάτους ἰόντας ἀπελαύνοιμεν, οὐδεὶς ὑπακού-
σεται ῥᾳδίως παρακαλοῦσιν.
20
>] 4, -
Ἰουλιανὸς Θεοδώρῳ ἀρχιερεῖ."
Ἐμοὶ πρὸς σὲ πεποίηται παρὰ τοὺς ἄλλους
ἰδιαίτερον ἐπιστολῆς εἶδος, ὅτε σοι καὶ πλέον
μέτεστι τῆς πρὸς ἐμὲ φιλίας ἤπερ οἶμαι τοῖς ἄλ-
λοις" ἔστι γὰρ ἡμῖν ὁ κοινὸς καθηγεμὼν οὐ μικρά,
καὶ μέμνησαι δήπου. χρόνος δὲ οὐ βραχὺς ὅτε
διατρίβων ἔτι κατὰ τὴν ἑσπέραν, ἐπειδή σε λίαν
ἀρέσκειν ἐπυθόμην αὐτῷ, φίλον ἐνόμισα" καίτοι
δοκεῖν ὃ ἔχον ἐκεῖνο καλῶς εἴωθεν ἐμοὶ διὰ περιτ-
τὴν εὐλάβειαν τὸ οὐ γὰρ ἔγωγε ἤντησ᾽ οὐδὲ ἴδον, καὶ
1 For καταλύματος MSS. Hertlein suggests καλύμματος.
* Hertlein 63. Before Θεοδώρῳ Hertlein, following Heyler,
brackets Kaloap the reading of Vossianus.
3 δοκεῖν so Capps for a lacuna here ; Spanheim συμβαίνειν.
1 See Introduction. Those who date this letter early in
363, following Reiske, regard it as part of the Letter to a
Priest, Vol. 2, written after the burning of the temple of
54
TO THE HIGH-PRIEST THEODORUS
of the thing went—indeed it is clear that he never
injured any temple anywhere except for what
amounted to a few stones, and that was as a blind,
that he might be able to save the rest—well then
we are taking this into account and are we not
ashamed to behave to him as Aphobius did, and as
the Galilaeans all pray to see him treated? If you
care at all for my wishes you will honour not him
only but any others who are converted, in order
that they may the more readily heed me when I
summon them to good works, and those others may
have less cause to rejoice. But if we drive away
those who come to us of their own free will, no one
will be ready to heed when we summon.
20
To the High-priest Theodorus ἷ
I HAVE written you a more familiar sort of letter
than to the others, because you, I believe, have ya
more friendly feelings than others towards me. For
it means much that we had the same guide,? and I
am sure you remember him. A long time ago, when
I was still living in the west,? I learned that he
had the highest regard for you, and for that reason
I counted you my friend, and yet because of their
excessive caution, I have usually thought these
words well said,
“For I never met or saw him” ;4
Apollo at Daphne in October 362. It seems more likely that
that fragment contains the general instructions for priests
promised by Julian in this letter.
* Maximus of Ephesus, who had initiated Julian and
perhaps Theodorus also into the Mysteries of Mithras.
3 2,6. in Gaul. 4 Tliad 4. 374; Odyssey 4. 200.
55
453
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
καλῶς 1 ἡγεῖσθαι χρὴ φιλίας μὲν γνῶσιν, γνώσεως
δὲ πεῖραν. ἀλλ᾽ ἣν τις, ὡς ἔοικεν, οὐκ ἐλάχιστος
παρ᾽ ἐμοὶ λόγος καὶ τοῦ Αὐτὸς ἔφα. διόπερ ἐγὼ
καὶ τότε σε τοῖς γνωρίμοις ὦμην δεῖν ἐγκαταλέγειν,
καὶ νῦν ἐπιτρέπω πρᾶγμα ἐμοὶ μὲν φίλον, ἀνθρώ-
ποις δὲ πᾶσι πανταχοῦ λυσιτελέστατον. σὺ δὲ
εἰ καλῶς, ὥσπερ οὖν ἄξιον ἐλπίζειν, αὐτὸ μετα-
χειρίσαιο, ἴσθι πολλὴν μὲν εὐφροσύνην ἐνταῦθα
παρέξων, ἐλπίδα δὲ ἀγαθὴν ᾿μείξονα τὴν εἰς τὸ
μέλλον. οὐ γὰρ δὴ καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐσμεν τῶν πεπει-
σμένων τὰς ψυχὰς ἤτοι προαπόλλυσθαι τῶν σω-
μάτων ἢ συναπόλλυσθαι, πειθόμεθα δὲ τῶν μὲν
ἀνθρώπων οὐδενί, τοῖς θεοῖς δὲ μόνον, ods δὴ καὶ
μάλιστα. ταῦτα εἰκὸς εἰδέναι μόνους, εἴ γε χρὴ
καλεῖν εἰκὸς τὸ ἀναγκαῖον" ὡς τοῖς μὲν ἀνθρώποις
ἁρμόξει περὶ τῶν τοιούτων εἰκάζειν, ἐπίστασθαι
δὲ αὐτὰ τοὺς θεοὺς a ἀνάγκη.
Τί τοῦτο οὖν ἐστιν ὅ φημί σοι νῦν ἐπιτρέπειν ;
ἄρχειν τῶν περὶ τὴν ᾿Ασίαν i ἱερῶν ἁπάντων αἱρου-
μένῳ ἢ τοὺς καθ᾽ ἑκάστην πόλιν "ἱερέας καὶ ἀπο-
νέμοντι τὸ πρέπον ἑκάστῳ. πρέπει δὲ ἐπιείκεια
μὲν πρῶτον ἄρχοντι χρηστότης τε ἐπ᾽ αὐτῇ καὶ
φιλανθρωπία πρὸς τοὺς ἀξίους αὐτῶν τυγχάνειν.
ὡς ὅστις γε ἀδικεῖ μὲν ἀνθρώπους, ἀνόσιος δ᾽ ἐστὶ
πρὸς θεούς, θρασὺς δὲ πρὸς πάντας, ἢ διδακτέος
μετὰ παρρησίας ἐστὶν ἢ μετ ᾿ἐμβριθείας κολαστέος.
ὅσα μὲν οὖν χρὴ κοινῇ συντάξαι περὶ τῶν ἱερέων 8
1 καὶ καλῶς Capps; ὡς MSS., Hertlein.
+s OUMEVW Vossianus ; ἐπισκοπουμένῳ Hertlein ; αἱρουμένῳ
Cobet.
8 Hertlein, MSS. ἱερῶν,
56
TO THE HIGH-PRIEST THEODORUS
and well said is “ Before we love we must know, and
before we can know we must test by experience.”
But it seems that after all a certain other saying
has most weight with me, namely, “ ‘The Master has
spoken.” + That is why I thought even then that
I ought to count you among my friends, and now I
entrust to you a task that is dear to my heart, while
to all men everywhere it is of the greatest benefit.
And if, as I have the right to expect, you administer
the office well, be assured that you will rejoice me
greatly now and give me still greater good hope for
the future life. For I certainly am not one of those
who believe that the soul perishes before the body
or along with it, nor do I believe any human being
but only the gods; since it is likely that they alone
have the most perfect knowledge of these matters,
if indeed we ought to use the word “likely” of
what is inevitably true; since it is fitting for men
to conjecture about such matters, but the gods must
have complete knowledge.
What then is this office which I say.I now entrust
to you? It is the government of all the temples in
Asia, with power to appoint the priests in every city
and to assign to each what is fitting. Now the
qualities that befit one in this high office are, in the
first place, fairness, and next, goodness and bene-
volence towards those who deserve to be treated
thus. For any priest who behaves unjustly to his
fellow men and impiously towards the gods, or is
overbearing to all, must either be admonished with
plain speaking or chastised with great severity. As
for the regulations which I must make more com-
plete for the guidance of priests in general, you
+ This Pythagorean phrase is the original of 7988 dizit.
57
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
ἁπάντων ἐντελέστερον, αὐτίκα μάλα σὺν τοῖς ἄλ-
λοις εἴσει, μ μικρὰ δὲ τέως ὑποθέσθαι σοι βούλομαι.
δίκαιος δὲ εἷ πείθεσθαί μοι τὰ τοιαῦτα. καὶ γὰρ
οὐδὲ ἀποσχεδιάζω τὰ πολλὰ τῶν τοιούτων, ὡς
ἴσασιν οἱ θεοὶ πάντες, ἀλλά, εἴπερ τις ἄλλος,
εὐλαβής εἰμι καὶ φεύγω τὴν καινοτομίαν ἐν ἅπασι
μέν, ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν, ἰδίᾳ δὲ ἐν τοῖς πρὸς τοὺς
θεούς, οἰόμενος ,»χρῆναι. τοὺς πατρίους ἐξ ἀρχῆς
φυλάττεσθαι νόμους, οὺς ὅτι μὲν ἔδοσαν οἱ θεοί,
φανερόν' οὐ γὰρ ἂν ἦσαν οὕτω καλοὶ παρὰ ἀνθρώ-
πων ἁπλῶς γενόμενοι. συμβὰν δὲ αὐτοὺς ἀμε-
ληθῆναι καὶ διαφθαρῆναι πλούτου καὶ τρυφῆς
ἐπικρατησάντων, οἶμαι δεῖν ὥ ὥσπερ ἀφ᾽ ἑστίας ἐπι-
μεληθῆναι τῶν τοιούτων. ὁρῶν οὖν πολλὴν μὲν
ὀλυγωρίαν οὖσαν ἡμῖν πρὸς τοὺς θεούς, ἅπασαν
δὲ εὐλάβειαν τὴν εἰς τοὺς xpetrrovas ἀπεληλα-
μένην ὑπὸ τῆς ἀκαθάρτου καὶ ὶ χυδαίας 1 τρυφῆς, ἀεὶ
μὲν ὠδυράμην eye κατ᾽ ἐμαυτὸν τὰ τοιαῦτα, τοὺς
μὲν TH ᾿Τουδαίων 5 εὐσεβείας σχολῇ προσέχοντας
οὕτω διαπύρους, ὡς αἱρεῖσθαι μὲν ὑπὲρ αὐτῆς
θάνατον, ἀνέχεσθαι δὲ πᾶσαν ἔνδειαν καὶ λεμόν,
ὑείων ὅπως μὴ γεύσαιντο μηδὲ πνικτοῦ 3 μηδ᾽ ἄρα
τοῦ ἀποθλιβέντος" ἡμᾶς δὲ οὕτω ῥᾳθύμως τὰ
πρὸς τοὺς θεοὺς διακειμένους, ὥστε ἐπιλελῆσθαι
μὲν τῶν πατρίων, ἀγνοεῖν δὲ λοιπόν, εἰ καὶ ἐτάχθη
1 καὶ χυδαίας Hertlein suggests for lacuna ; ταύτης Cobet.
2 τῇ Ἰουδαίων Hertlein suggests for lacuna. MEV... We
3... . τοῦ MS. πνικτοῦ Spanheim.
1 Literally ‘‘from the hearth,” 7.e. from their origin, a
proverb.
* For Julian’s tolerant attitude to the Jewish religion, ef.
To the Jews, p. 177.
58
TO THE HIGH-PRIEST THEODORUS
as well as the others will soon learn them from
me, but meanwhile I wish to make a few sugges-
tions to you. You have good reason.to obey me
in such matters. Indeed in such a case I very
seldom act offhand, as all the gods know, and
no one could be more circumspect; and I avoid
innovations in all things, so to speak, but more
peculiarly in what concerns the gods. For I hold
that we ought to observe the laws that we have
inherited from our forefathers, since it is evident
that the gods gave them to us. For they would not
be as perfect as they are if they had been derived
from mere men. Now since it has come to pass that
they have been neglected and corrupted, and wealth
and luxury have become supreme, I think that I
ought to consider them carefully as though from
their cradle.t Therefore, when I saw that there is
among us great indifference about the gods and that
all reverence for the heavenly powers has been
driven out by impure and vulgar luxury, I always
secretly lamented this state of things. For I saw
that those whose minds were turned to the doctrines
of the Jewish religion? are so ardent in their belief \,
that they would choose to die for it, and to endure
utter want and starvation rather than taste pork or
any animal that has been strangled 8 or had the life “
squeezed out of it; whereas we are in such a state
of apathy about religious matters that we have for-
gotten the customs of our forefathers, and therefore
we actually do not know whether any such rule has
8 This is not directly prohibited in the Old Testament, but
ef. Deuteronomy 12. 23, where it is implied; and, for the
New Testament, Acts 15, 29 ‘‘That ye abstain from things
strangled.”
59
454
378
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
πώποτέ TL τοιοῦτον. ἀλλ᾽ οὗτοι μὲν ἐν μέρει
θεοσεβεῖς ὄντες, ἐπείπερ θεὸν! τιμῶσι τὸν ws?
ἀχηθῶς ὄντα δυνατώτατον καὶ ἀγαθώτατον, ὃς
ἐπιτροπεύει τὸν αἰσθητὸν κόσμον, ὃν εὖ οἶδ᾽ ὅτι
καὶ ἡμεῖς ἄλλοις θεραπεύομεν ὀνόμασιν, εἰκότα
μοι δοκοῦσι ποιεῖν, τοὺς νόμους μὴ παραβαίνοντες,
ἐκεῖνο δὲ 8 μόνον ἁμαρτάνειν, ὅτε μὴ καὶ τοὺς
ἄλλους θεοὺς, ἀρέσκοντες τούτῳ μάλιστα τῷ θεῷ,
θεραπεύουσιν, ἀλλ᾽ ἡμῖν οἴονται τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ἀπο-
κεκληρῶσθαι μόνοις αὐτούς, ἀλαζονείᾳ βαρβαρικῇ
8,
| πρὸς ταυτηνὶ τὴν ἀπόνοιαν ἐπαρθέντες" οἱ δὲ ἐκ
τῆς Γαλιλαίας * δυσσεβείας ὥσπερ τι νόσημα τῷ.
βίῳ τὴν ἑαυτῶν... ..
21
Αὐτοκράτωρ Καῖσαρ ᾿Ιουλιανὸς Μέγιστος
Σεβαστὸς ᾿Αλεξανδρέων τῷ δήμῳ
Ei μὴ TOV ᾿Αλέξανδρον τὸν "οἰκιστὴν ὑμῶν καὶ
πρό γε τούτου τὸν θεὸν τὸν μέγαν τὸν ἁγιώτατον
Σάραπιν. αἰδεῖσθε, τοῦ κοινοῦ γοῦν ὑμᾶς καὶ ἀνθρω-
πίνου καὶ πρέποντος πῶς οὐκ εἰσῆλθε λόγος οὐδείς;
προσθήσω δὲ ὅτι" καὶ ἡμῶν, ods οἱ θεοὶ πάντες, ἐν
1 θεὸν Cobet suggests, ὃν MSS.
2 tov ws Cobet suggests τιμῶσι. . . ἀλλ᾽ MSS. οὐ νεκρὸν
ἀλλ᾽ Heyler suggests.
3 δὲ Reiske adds. 4 Ταλιλαίων Hercher.
5 Hertlein 10, Asmus thinks that before Μέγιστος the
word ’Apxiepeds, ““ high priest,” has fallen out; cf. Vol. 2,
Fragment of a Letter, 298 Ὁ. The phrase would then mean
‘** Pontifex Maximus.”
ὁ Hertlein suggests ἔτι.
60
TO THE PEOPLE OF ALEXANDRIA
ever been prescribed. But these Jews are in pa
god-fearing, seeing that they revere a god who is
truly most powerful and most good and governs this
world of sense, and, as I well know, is worshipped by
us also under other names. They act as is right and
seemly, in my opinion, if they do not transgress the
laws; but in this one thing they err in that, while
reserving their deepest devotion for their own god,
they do not conciliate the other gods also; but the
other gods they think have been allotted to us
Gentiles only, to such a pitch of folly have they
been brought by their barbaric conceit. But those
who belong to the impious sect of the Galilaeans,
as if some disease . . .?
21
The Emperor Julian Caesar, most Mighty Augustus,
to the People of Alexandria ὃ
Ir you de not revere the memory of Alexander,
your founder, and yet more than him the great god,
the most holy Serapis, how is it that you took no
thought at least for the welfare of your community,
for humanity, for decency? Furthermore, I will add
that you took no thought for me either, though all
1 Cf. Against the Galilaeans 3548, where Julian says that
he always worships the God of Abraham, who is gracious to
those that do him reverence μέγας τε Sv πάνυ καὶ δυνατός,
‘‘for he is very great and powerful.”
2 The conclusion of the sentence is lost, and was probably
deleted by a Christian because of some disrespectful reference
to Christ.
8 Quoted entire by Socrates, History of the Church 3. 3;
cited by Sozomen, 5. 7. 9; for the murder of Bishop George
to which it refers, see Introduction, under Athanasius.
61
362
January
From
Con-
stanti-
nople
379
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
πρώτοις δὲ ὁ μέγας Σάραπις ἄρχειν ἐδικαίωσαν
τῆς οἰκουμένης" οἷς πρέπον ἣν τὴν ὑπὲρ τῶν ἦδι-
κηκότων ὑμᾶς φυλάξαι διάγνωσιν. ἀλλ᾽ ὀργὴ
τυχὸν ἴσως ὑμᾶς ἐξηπάτησε καὶ θυμός, ὅ ὅσπερ οὖν
εἴωθε “ τὰ δεινὰ πράττειν, τὰς φρένας μετοικίσας,᾽
οἱ τὰ τῆς ὁρμῆς ἀναστείλαντες τοῖς παραχρῆμα
βεβουλευμένοις καλῶς ὕστερον ἐπηγάγετε τὴν
παρανομίαν, οὐδὲ ἢσχύνθητε δῆμος ὄντες τολμῆ-
σαι ταὐτά, ἐφ᾽ οἷς ἐκείνους ἐμισήσατε δικαίως.
εἴπατε γάρ μοι πρὸς τοῦ Σαράπιδος, ὑπὲρ ποίων
ἀδικημάτων ἐχαλεπήνατε Γεωργίῳ ; τὸν μακαρί-
την Κωνστάντιον, ἐ ἐρεῖτε δήπουθεν, ὅ ὅτι καθ᾽ ὑμῶν
παρώξυνεν, εἶτα εἰσήγαγεν εἰς τὴν ἱερὰν πόλιν
στρατόπεδον, καὶ κατέλαβεν ὁ στρατηγὸς τῆς
Αἰγύπτου τὸ ἁγιώτατον τοῦ θεοῦ τέμενος, ἀποσυ-
λήσας ἐκεῖθεν εἰκόνας καὶ ἀναθήματα καὶ τὸν ἐν.
τοῖς ἱεροῖς κόσμον. ὑμῶν δὲ ἀγανακτούντων εἰκό-
TOS καὶ πειρωμένων ἀμύνειν τῷ θεῷ, μᾶλλον δὲ
τοῖς τοῦ θεοῦ κτήμασιν, ὁ δὲ ἐτόλμησεν ὑμῖν
ἐπιπέμψαι τοὺς ὁπλίτας ἀδίκως καὶ “παρανόμως
καὶ ἀσεβῶς, ἴσως Γεώργιον μᾶλλον ἢ ἢ τὸν Κωνστάν-
τιον δεδοικώς, ὃ ὃς αὐτὸν παρεφύλαττεν, εἰ μετριώ-
τερον ὑμῖν καὶ πολιτικώτερον, ἀλλὰ μὴ τυραννι-
κώτερον πόρρωθεν προσφέροιτο. τούτων οὖν
ἕνεκεν ὀργιζόμενοι τῷ θεοῖς ἐχθρῷ Γεωργίῳ τὴν
1 οἱ τὰ Hertlein suggests ; εἰ τὰ Heyler; εἶτα MSS.
2 Cobet ; μακαριώτατον MSS., Hertlein.
1 Plutarch, On the Restraint of Anger 453; quoted from
Melanthius the tragic poet; frag. 1, Nauck. ‘This is the
only extant fragment of Melanthius and is often quoted.
2 Artemius, military prefect of Egypt; he was executed
62
TO THE PEOPLE OF ALEXANDRIA
the gods, and, above all, the great Serapis, judged it
right that I should rule over the world. The proper
course was for you to reserve for me the decision
concerning the offenders. But perhaps your anger
and rage led you astray, since it often “‘ turns reason
out of doors and then does terrible things” 1; for
after you had restrained your original impulse, you
later introduced lawlessness to mar the wise resolu-
tions which you had at the first adopted, and were
not ashamed, as a community, to commit the same
rash acts as those for which you rightly detested
your adversaries. For tell me, in the name of
Serapis, what were the crimes for which you were
incensed against George? You will doubtless
answer: He exasperated against you Constantius
of blessed memory; then he brought an army into
the holy city, and the general? in command of
Egypt seized the most sacred shrine of the god and
stripped it of its statues and offerings and of all the
ornaments in the temples. And when you were
justly provoked and tried to succour the god, or
rather the treasures of the god,? Artemius dared to
send his soldiers against you, unjustly, illegally and
impiously, perhaps because he was more afraid of
George than of Constantius; for the former was
keeping a close watch on him to prevent his behaving
to you too moderately and constitutionally, but not
to prevent his acting far more like a tyrant. Accord-
ingly you will say it was because you were angered
for these reasons against George, the enemy of the
by Julian at the request of the Alexandrians, in the summer
of 362; Ammianus 22, 11.
3 Serapis; the Serapeum according to Ammianus 22. 16,
was, next to the Capitol at Rome, the most splendid temple
in the world. For this incident see Sozomen 4. 30. 9,
63
380
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
ἱερὰν αὖθις ἐμιάνατε πόλιν, ἐξὸν ὑποβάλλειν αὐ-
τὸν ταῖς τῶν δικαστῶν ψήφοις: οὕτω γὰρ ἐγένετο
ἂν οὐ φόνος οὐδὲ “παρανομία τὸ πρᾶγμα, δίκη δὲ
ἐμμελής, ὑμᾶς μὲν ἀθῴους “πάντη φυλάττουσα,
τιμωρουμένη pied 1 τὸν ἀνίατα δυσσεβήσαντα, σω-
φρονίξουσά δὲ 2 τοὺς ἄλλους πάντας ὅσοι τῶν
θεῶν ὀλιγωροῦσι καὶ προσέτι τὰς τοιαύτας πόλεις
καὶ τοὺς ἀνθοῦντας δήμους ἐ ἐν οὐδενὶ τίθενται, τῆς
ἑαυτῶν δὲ ποιοῦνται πάρεργον δυναστείας τὴν
κατ᾽ ἐκείνων ὠμότητα.
Παραβάλλετε τοίνυν ταύτην μου τὴν ἐπιστο-
λὴν ἧ μικρῷ πρῴην ἐπέστειλα, καὶ τὸ διάφορον
κατανοήσατε. πόσους μὲν ὑμῶν ἐπαίνους ἔγρα-
φον τότε; ; νυνὶ δὲ μὰ τοὺς θεοὺς ἐθέλων ὑμᾶς
ἐπαινεῖν οὐ δύναμαι. διὰ τὴν παρανομίαν. τολμᾷ
δῆμος ὥσπερ οἱ κύνες λύκον ὃ ἄνθρωπον σπαράτ-
τειν, εἶτα οὐκ αἰσχύνεται τὰς χεῖρας προσάγειν
τοῖς θεοῖς αἵματι ῥεούσας. ἀλλὰ Peapyos ἄξιος
ἣν τοῦ τοιαῦτα παθεῖν. καὶ τούτων ἴσως ἐγὼ
φαίην ἂν χείρονα καὶ πικρότερα. καὶ δι᾽ ὑμᾶς,
ἐρεῖτε. σύμφημι καὶ αὐτός" παρ᾽ ὑμῶν δὲ εἰ
λέγοιτε, τοῦτο οὐκέτι συγχωρῶ. νόμοι γὰρ ὑμῖν
εἰσίν, ods χρὴ τιμᾶσθαι μάλιστα μὲν ὑπὸ πάντων
ἰδίᾳ καὶ στέργεσθαι. πλὴν ἐπειδὴ συμβαΐίνει τῶν
καθ᾽ ἕκαστόν τινας παρανομεῖν, ἀλλὰ τὰ κοινὰ
γοῦν εὐνομεῖσθαι χρὴ καὶ πειθαρχεῖν τοῖς νόμοις
1 Hertlein suggests δὲ from correction in margin.
2 Hertlein suggests re.
3. Asmus supplies ; cf. Vol. 1, Oration 1. 4806.
1 On the turbulence of the Alexandrians cf. Ammianus
| 11: ἃ;
64
TO THE PEOPLE OF ALEXANDRIA
gods, that you once more! desecrated the holy city,
when you might have subjected him to the votes of
the judges. For in that case the affair would not have
resulted in murder? and lawlessness but in a lawsuit
in due form, which would have kept you wholly free
from guilt, while it+would have punished that
impious man for his inexpiable crimes, and would
have checked all others who neglect the gods, and who
moreover lightly esteem cities like yours and flourish-
ing communities, since they think that cruel behaviour
towards these is a perquisite of their own power.
Now compare this letter of mine with the one 8 that
I wrote to you a short time ago, and mark the
difference well. What words of praise for you did I
write then! But now, by the gods, though I wish
to praise you, I cannot, because you have broken the
law. Your citizens dare to tear a human being in
pieces as dogs tear a wolf, and then are not ashamed
to lift to the gods those hands still dripping with
blood! But, you will say, George deserved to be
treated in this fashion. Granted, and I might even
admit that he deserved even worse and more cruel
treatment. Yes, you will say, and on your account.
To this I too agree; but if you say by your hands, I
no longer agree. For you have laws which ought
by all means to be honoured and cherished by you
all, individually. Sometimes, no doubt, it happens
that certain persons break one or other of these
laws; but nevertheless the state as a whole ought
_to be well governed and you ought to obey the laws
3 Ammianus 22. 11. 8 describes the murder by the mob
of Bishop George and two officials of the Emperor Con- |
stantius on December 24th, 361.
8. This letter is not extant.
> 65
VOL, ΠῚ, F
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
ὑμᾶς, καὶ μὴ παραβαίνειν ὅσαπερ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐνο-
μίσθη καλῶς. Εὐτύχημα γέγονεν ὑμῖν, ἄνδρες
᾿Αλεξανδρεῖς, ἐπ᾽ ἐμοῦ πλημμελῆσαι τοιοῦτό TL
ὑμᾶς, ὃς αἰδοῖ τῇ πρὸς τὸν θεὸν καὶ διὰ τὸν θεῖον
τὸν ἐμὸν καὶ ὁμώνυμον, ὃς ἦρξεν αὐτῆς τε Αὐγύ-
πτου καὶ τῆς ὑμετέρας πόλεως, ἀδελφικὴν εὔνοιαν
ὑμῖν ἀποσώζξω. τὸ γὰρ τῆς ἐξουσίας ἀκαταφρόνη-
τον καὶ τὸ ἀπηνέστερον καὶ καθαρὸν τῆς ἀρχῆς
οὔποτε ἂν δήμου περιίδοι τόλμημα μὴ οὐ καθάπερ
νόσημα χαλεπὸν. πικροτέρῳ διακαθῆραι φαρμάκῳ.
προσφέρω δ᾽ ἐγὼ ὑμῖν ov ἅσπερ ἔναγχος ἔφην
αἰτίας τὸ ,προσηνέστατον, παραίνεσιν καὶ λόγους,
ὑφ᾽ ὧν εὖ οἶδ᾽ ὅτι πείσεσθε “μᾶλλον, εἶπερ ἐστέ,
καθάπερ ἀκούω, τό τε ἀρχαῖον “Ἕλληνες, καὶ τὰ
νῦν ἔτι τῆς εὐγενείας ἐκείνης ὕπεστιν ὑμῖν ἀξιό-
λογος καὶ γενναῖος ἐν τῇ διανοίᾳ καὶ τοῖς ἐπιτηδεύ-
μασιν ὁ χαρακτήρ.
ΠΡροτεθήτω τοῖς ἐμοῖς πολίταις ᾿Αλεξανδρεῦσιν.
22
᾿Αρσακίῳ ἀρχιερεῖ Γαλατίας.
Ὁ ᾿Ἑλληνισμὸς οὔπω πράττει κατὰ λόγον
ἡμῶν ἕνεκα τῶν μετιόντων αὐτόν' τὰ γὰρ τῶν
θεῶν λαμπρὰ καὶ μεγάλα, κρείττονα πάσης μὲν
εὐχῆς, πάσης δὲ ἐλπίδος. ἵλεως δὲ ἔστω τοῖς
λόγοις ἡμῶν ᾿Αδράδτεια' τὴν γὰρ ἐν ὀλίγῳ τοιαύ-
1 Hertlein 49. This letter is quoted in full by Sozomen
5. 16, and is not extant in any MS. of Julian.
€6
TO ARSACIUS, HIGH-PRIEST OF GALATIA
and not transgress those that from the beginning
were wisely established.
It is a fortunate thing for you, men of Alexandria,
that this transgression of yours occurred in my reign,
since by reason of my reverence for the god and out
of regard for my uncle! and namesake, who governed
the whole of Egypt and your city also, I preserve for
you the affection of a brother. For power that would
be respected and a really strict and unswerving govern-
ment would never overlook an outrageous action of
a people, but would rather purge it away by bitter
medicine, like a serious disease. But, for the reasons
I have just mentioned, I administer to you the very
mildest remedy, namely admonition and arguments,
by which I am very sure that you will be the more
convinced if you really are, as I am told, originally
Greeks, and even to this day there remains in your
dispositions and habits a notable and honourable
impress of that illustrious descent.
Let this_be publicly proclaimed to my citizens of
Alexandria, :
22
To Arsacius, High-priest of Galatia
Tue Hellenic religion does not yet prosper as I
desire, and it is the fault of those who profess it;
for the worship of the gods is on a splendid and
magnificent scale, surpassing every prayer and every
hope. May Adrasteia? pardon my words, for indeed
1 Julian, Count of the East; cf. IMisopogon 365c; he had
held some high office in Egypt, under Constantius.
.3 The goddess ‘‘whom none may escape” is a variant of
Nemesis, often invoked in a saving clause, cf. 70 Alypius,
Ρ. 17
67
362
On his
way to
Antioch
in June?
430
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
τὴν Kal τηλικαύτην μεταβολὴν οὐδ᾽ ἂν εὔξασθαί
TLS ὀλίγῳ πρότερον ἐτόλμα. τί οὖν ἡμεῖς οἰόμεθα
ταῦτα ἀρκεῖν, οὐδὲ ἀποβλέπομεν, ὡς μάλιστα τὴν
ἀθεότητα συνηύξησεν ἡ περὶ τοὺς ξένους φιλαν-
θρωπία καὶ ἡ περὶ τὰς ταφὰς τῶν νεκρῶν. προ-
μήθεια καὶ ἡ πεπλασμένη σεμνότης κατὰ τὸν
βίον ; ὧν ἕκαστον οἴομαι χρῆναι Tap ἡμῶν ἀλη-
θῶς ἐπιτηδεύεσθαι. καὶ οὐκ ἀπόχρη τὸ σὲ μόνον
εἶναι τοιοῦτον, ἀλλὰ πάντας ἁπαξαπλῶς ὅσοι
περὶ τὴν Γαλατίαν εἰσὶν ἱερεῖς" ods ἢ δυσώπησον
ἢ πεῖσον εἶναι σπουδαίους, ἢ ἢ τῆς ἱερατικῆς λει-
τουργίας ἀποστῆσον, εἰ μὴ προσέρχοιντο μετὰ γυ-
ναικῶν καὶ παίδων καὶ θεραπόντων τοῖς θεοῖς,
ἀλλὰ ἀνέχοιντο τῶν οἰκετῶν ἢ υἱέων ἢ τῶν γαμε-
τῶν ἀσεβούντων μὲν εἰς τοὺς θεούς, ἀθεότητα δὲ
θεοσεβείας προτιμώντων. ἔπειτα παραίνεσον ἱερέα
μήτε θεάτρῳ παραβάλλειν μήτε ἐν καπηλείῳ πί-
νειν ἢ τέχνης τινὸς καὶ ἐργασίας αἰσχρᾶς καὶ
ἐπονειδίστου προΐστασθαι" καὶ τοὺς μὲν πειθομέ-
νους τίμα, τοὺς δὲ ἀπειθοῦντας ἐξώθει. ἕενοδο-
κεῖα καθ᾽ ἑκάστην πόλιν κατάστησον πυκνά, ἵν᾽
ἀπολαύσωσιν οἱ ξένοι τῆς παρ᾽ ἡμῶν φιλανθρω-
πίας, οὐ τῶν ἡμετέρων μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἄλλων
ὅστις ἂν δεηθῇ" χρημάτων. ὅθεν δὲ εὐπορήσεις,
ἐπινενόηταί μοι τέως. ἑκάστου γὰρ ἐνιαυτοῦ τρισ-
puptous μοδίους κατὰ πᾶσαν τὴν Γαλατίαν ἐκέ-
λευσα δοθῆναι σίτου καὶ ἑξακισμυρίους οἴνου
1 ἐνδεηθῇ Hertlein, not necessary.
1 Julian often calls Christianity ‘‘ atheism.”
2 In the Fragment of a Letter, Vol. 2, Julian admonishes
priests to imitate Christian virtues, cf. especially 289-290 ;
it is the favourite theme of his pastoral letters; for a fuller
68
TO ARSACIUS, HIGH-PRIEST OF GALATIA
no one, a little while ago, would have ventured even
to pray for a change of such a sort or so complete
within so short a time. Why, then, do we think
that this is enough, why do we not observe that it
is their benevolence to strangers, their care for the
graves of the dead and the pretended holiness of
their lives that have done most to increase atheism ? +
I believe that we ought really and truly to practise
every one of these virtues.?_ And it is not enough
for you alone to practise them, but so must all the
priests in Galatia, without exception. Either shame_
or persuade them into righteousness or else remove
them from their priestly office, if they do not,
together with their wives, children and servants,
attend the worship of the gods but allow their
servants or sons or wives to show impiety towards
the gods and honour atheism more than piety. In
the second place, admonish them that no priest
may enter a theatre or drink in a tavern or control
any craft or trade that is base and not respectable.
Honour those who obey you, but those who disobey,
expel from office. In every city establish frequent
hostels in order that strangers may profit by our
benevolence; I do not mean for our own people
only, but for others also who are in need of money.
I have but now made a plan by which you may be
well provided for this; for I have given directions
that 30,000 modii of corn shall be assigned every
year for the whole of Galatia, and 60,000 pints® of
account of his attempt to graft Christian discipline on
paganism, see Gregory Nazianzen, Against Julian, Oration ὃ,
and Sozomen 5. 16.
8 Modius, “peck,” and sextarius, ‘‘ pint,” are Latin words ;
ef. use in the Letters of mpiBarois, privitis, BpéBia, brevic,
σκρινίοις, scrintis.
69
431
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
ξέστας" ὧν τὸ μὲν πέμπτον εἰς τοὺς πένητας τοὺς
τοῖς ἱερεῦσιν ὑπηρετουμένους ἀναλίσκεσθαί φημι
χρῆναι, τὰ δὲ ἄλλα τοῖς ξένοις καὶ τοῖς μεταιτοῦ-
σιν ἐπινέμεσθαι παρ᾽ ἡμῶν. αἰσχρὸν γάρ, εἰ τῶν
μὲν ᾿Ιουδαίων οὐδεὶς μεταιτεῖ, τρέφουσι δὲ οἱ
δυσσεβεῖς Τ᾽αλιλαῖοι πρὸς τοῖς ἑαυτῶν καὶ τοὺς
ἡμετέρους, οἱ δὲ ἡμέτεροι τῆς παρ᾽ ἡμῶν ἐπικου-
ρίας ἐνδεεῖς φαίνονται. δίδασκε δὲ καὶ συνεισφέ-
ρειν τοὺς “Ελληνιστὰς εἰς τὰς τοιαύτας λειτουργίας
καὶ τὰς “Ελληνικὰς κώμας ἀπάρχεσθαι τοῖς θεοῖς
τῶν καρπῶν, καὶ τοὺς ‘EXAnviKOvS ταῖς τοιαύταις
εὐποιίαις προσέθιζε, διδάσκων αὐτούς, ὡς τοῦτο
πάλαι ἣν ἡμέτερον ἔργον. “Ὅμηρος γοῦν τοῦτο
πεποίηκεν Εὔμαιον λέγοντα"
a? vy / ” bd 50» > , /
ξεῖν, οὔ μοι θέμις ἔστ᾽, οὐδ᾽ εἰ κακίων σέθεν
ἔλθοι,
“ > ἃς “ \ \ ‘a ’ ev
ξεῖνον ἀτιμῆσαι' πρὸς yap Διός εἰσιν ἅπαντες
ἴω / / ’ > / /
ξεῖνοι Te πτωχοί τε. δόσις δ᾽ ὀλίγη τε φίλη τε.
\ \ \ > a \ a
μὴ δὴ τὰ Tap ἡμῖν ἀγαθὰ παραζηλοῦν ἄλλοις
συγχωροῦντες αὐτοὶ τῇ ῥᾳθυμίᾳ καταισχύνωμεν,
μᾶλλον δὲ καταπροώμεθα τὴν εἰς τοὺς θεοὺς εὐλά-
βειαν. εἰ ταῦτα πυθοίμην ἐγώ σε πράττοντα,
\
μεστὸς εὐφροσύνης ἔσομαι.
\ / a , δ
Τοὺς ἡγεμόνας ὀλιγάκις ἐπὶ τῆς οἰκίας ὅρα, τὰ
πλεῖστα δὲ αὐτοῖς ἐπίστελλε. εἰσιοῦσι δὲ εἰς τὴν
, ς 7 \ > cal ε / > ᾽ Ὁ“
πόλιν ὑπαντάτω μηδεὶς αὐτοῖς ἱερέων, ἀλλ᾽, ὅταν
εἰς τὰ ἱερὰ φοιτῶσι τῶν θεῶν, εἴσω τῶν προθύρων.
ἡγείσθω δὲ μηδεὶς αὐτῶν εἴσω στρατιώτης, ἑπέσθω
ἈΦ / 7 \ > \ > \ 5S “Ὁ
δὲ ὁ βουλόμενος: ἅμα γὰρ εἰς τὸν οὐδὸν ἦλθε τοῦ
1 Klimek ; αὐτὸ MSS., Hertlein.
7°
TO ARSACIUS, HIGH-PRIEST OF GALATIA
wine. I order that one-fifth of this be used for the
poor who serve the priests, and the remainder be
distributed by us to strangers and beggars. For it
is disgraceful that, when no Jew ever has to beg,
and the impious Galilaeans support not only their
own poor but ours as well, all men see that our
people lack aid from us.1_ Teach those of the
Hellenic faith to contribute to public service of
this sort, and the Hellenic villages to offer their |
first fruits to the gods; and accustom those who
love the Hellenic religion to these good works by
teaching them that this was our practice of old.
At any rate Homer makes Eumaeus say: “ Stranger,
it is not lawful for me, not even though a baser
man than you should come, to dishonour a stranger.
For from Zeus come all strangers and beggars. And
a gift, though small, is precious.”’* Then let us not,
by allowing others to outdo us in good works, dis-
grace by such remissness, or rather, utterly abandon,
the reverence due to the gods. If I hear that you
are carrying out these orders I shall be filled with
joy.
hs for the government officials, do not interview
them often at their homes, but write to them
frequently. And when they enter the city no priest
must go to meet them, but only meet them within the
vestibule when they visit the temples of the gods.
Let no soldier march before them into the temple, but
any who will may follow them; for the moment that
_one of them passes over the threshold of the sacred
1 For a comparison of the charity of the Galilaeans with
Pagan illiberality, cf. Vol. 2, Misopogon 363A, B.
2 Odyssey 14. 56; cf. Fragment of a Letter 2918, where it is
quoted in a similar context.
71
D
432
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
τεμένους καὶ γέγονεν ἰδιώτης. ἄρχεις yap αὐτός,
ὡς οἶσθα, τῶν ἔνδον, ἐπεὶ καὶ ὁ θεῖος ταῦτα ἀπαι-
τεῖ θεσμός. καὶ οἱ μὲν πειθόμενοι κατὰ ἀλήθειάν
εἰσι θεοσεβεῖς, οἱ δὲ ἀντεχόμενοι τοῦ τύφου δοξο-
κόποι καὶ κενόδοξοι.
Τῇ Πεσσινοῦντι βοηθεῖν ἕτοιμός εἰμι, εἰ τὴν
μητέρα τῶν θεῶν ἵλεων καταστήσουσιν ἑαυτοῖς"
ἀμελοῦντες δὲ αὐτῆς οὐκ ἄμεμπτοι μόνον, ἀλλὰ, μὴ
πικρὸν εἰπεῖν, μὴ καὶ τῆς Tap ἡμῶν ἀπολαύσωσι
δυσμενείας.
οὐ γάρ μοι θέμις ἐστὶ κομιζέμεν οὐδ᾽ ἐλεαίρειν
ἀνέρας, οἵ κε θεοῖσιν ἀπέχθωντ᾽ ἀθανάτοισιν.
πεῖθε τοίνυν αὐτούς, εἰ τῆς παρ᾽ ἐμοῦ κηδεμονίας
ἀντέχονται, πανδημεὶ τῆς μητρὸς τῶν θεῶν ἱκέτας
γενέσθαι.
29
᾿Εκδικίῳ ἐπάρχῳ Αἰγύπτου 1
ἼΛλλοι μὲν ἵππων, ἄλλοι δὲ ὀρνέων, ἄλλοι δὲ 3
θηρίων ἐρῶσιν' ἐμοὶ δὲ βιβλίων κτήσεως ἐκ παι-
δαρίου δεινὸς ἐντέτηκε πόθος. ἄτοπον οὗν, εἰ
ταῦτα περιίδοιμι σφετερισαμένους ἀνθρώπους, οἷς
οὐκ ἀρκεῖ τὸ χρυσίον μόνον ἀποπλῆσαι τὸν πολὺν
ἔρωτα τοῦ πλούτου, πρὸς δὲ καὶ ταῦτα ὕφαι-
1 Hertlein 9.
2 Doehner suggests ; Hertlein suggests ἄλλων.
1 This letter was probably written after Julian’s visit to
Pessinus on his way to Antioch. The probable date for his
arrival at Antioch is the first half of July.
72
TO ECDICIUS, PREFECT OF EGYPT
precinct he becomes a private citizen. For you
yourself, as you are aware, have authority over what
is within, since this is the bidding of the divine
ordinance. Those who obey it are in very truth
god-fearing, while those who oppose it with arrogance
are vainglorious and empty-headed.
I am ready to assist Pessinus! if her people suc-\.
ceed in winning the favour of the Mother of the
Gods. But, if they neglect her, they are not only
not free from blame, but, not to speak harshly,
let them beware of reaping my enmity also. “ For
it is not lawful for me to cherish or to pity men
who are the enemies of the immortal gods.” 2
Therefore persuade them, if they claim my
patronage, that the whole community must become |
suppliants of the Mother of the Gods.
23
To Ecdicius, Prefect of Egypt ὃ
Some men have a passion for horses, others for
birds, others, again, for wild beasts; but I, from
childhood, have been penetrated by ἃ passionate
longing‘ to acquire books. It would therefore be
absurd if I should suffer these to be appropriated by
men whose inordinate desire for wealth gold alone
Odyssey 10. 73; Julian alters the original which is said
by Aeolus to Odysseus :
οὐ γάρ μοι θέμις ἐστὶ κομιζέμεν οὐδ᾽ ἀποπέμπειν
ἄνδρα τὸν ὅς κε θεοῖσιν ἀπέχθηται μακάρεσσιν.
3 See Introduction, under Ecdicius.
4 A proverbial phrase ; cf. Vol. 1, Oration 4. 1300, Vol. 2,
Oration 8. 251p; Plato, Menexenus 45D, For Julian's love
of books, Vol. 1, Oration 3. 123p. foll.
73
862
End of
January
From
Con-
stanti-
nople
398
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
ρεῖσθαι ῥᾳδίως διανοουμένους. ταύτην οὖν ἰδιωτι-
κήν μοι δὸς τὴν χάριν, ὅπως “ἀνευρεθῇ πάντα τὰ
Γεωργίου βιβλία. πολλὰ μὲν γὰρ ἣν φιλόσοφα
παρ᾽ αὐτῷ, πολλὰ δὲ ῥ ῥητορικά, πολλὰ δὲ ἦν καὶ
τῆς τῶν δυσσεβῶν Ἰ᾿αλιλαίων διδασκαλίας" ἃ
βουλοίμην μὲν ἠφανίσθαι πάντη, τοῦ δὲ μὴ σὺν
τούτοις ὑφαιρεθῆναι τὰ χρησιμώτερα, ζητείσθω
κἀκεῖνα μετ᾽ ἀκριβείας ἅπαντα. ἡγεμὼν δὲ τῆς
ξητήσεως ἔστω σοι ταύτης ὁ νοτάριος Γ εωργίου,
ὃς μετὰ πίστεως μὲν ἀνιχνεύσας αὐτὰ γέρως ἴστω
τευξόμενος ἐλευθερίας, εἰ δ᾽ ἁμωσγέπως γένοιτο
κακοῦργος περὶ τὸ πρᾶγμα, βασάνων εἰς πεῖραν
ἥξων. ἐπίσταμαι δὲ ἐγὼ τὰ Tewprytou βιβλία,
καὶ εἰ μὴ πάντα, πολλὰ μέντοι" μετέδωκε γάρ μοι
περὶ τὴν Καππαδοκίαν ὄντι πρὸς μεταγραφήν
τινα, καὶ ταῦτα ἔλαβε πάλιν.
24
᾿Αλεξανδρεῦσι διάταγμα
᾿Εχρῆν τὸν ἐξελαθέντα βασιλικοῖς πολλοῖς
πάνυ καὶ πολλῶν αὐτοκρατόρων προστάγμασιν
ἕν γοῦν ἐπίταγμα περιμεῖναι βασιλικόν, εἶθ᾽ οὕτως
εἰς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ κατιέναι, ἀλλὰ μὴ τόλμῃ μηδ᾽ ἀπο-
νοίᾳ χρησάμενον « ὡς οὐκ οὗσιν ἐνυβρίζειν τοῖς
νόμοις, ἐπεί τοι καὶ τὸ νῦν τοῖς Γαλιλαίοις τοῖς
1 Hertlein 26.
1 Perhaps to be identified with Porphyrius, to whom Julian
wrote the threatening Letter 38, p. 123.
2 2,6. when he was interned for six years by Constantius at
74
TO THE ALEXANDRIANS, AN EDICT
cannot satiate, and who unscrupulously design to steal
these also. Do you therefore grant me this per-
sonal favour, that all the books which belonged to
George be sought out. For there were in his house
many on philosophy, and many on rhetoric ; many
also on the teachings of the impious Galilaeans.
These latter I should wish to be utterly annihilated,
but for fear that along with them more useful works
may be destroyed by mistake, let all these also be
sought for with the greatest care. Let George’s
secretary ἢ take charge of this search for you, and if
he hunts for them faithfully let him know that he will
obtain his freedom as a reward, but that if he prove
in any way whatever dishonest in the business he
will be put to the test of torture. And I know
what books George had, many of them, at any
rate, if not all; for he lent me some of them to
copy, when I was in Cappadocia,? and these he
received back,
24
To the Alexandrians, an Edict ὃ
One who had been banished by so many imperial
decrees issued by many Emperors ought to have
waited for at least one imperial edict, and then on
the strength of that returned to his own country,
and not displayed rashness and folly, and insulted
the laws as though they did not exist. For we
have not, even now, granted to the Galilaeans who
Macellum in Cappadocia. George was then at Caesarea near
Macellum.
® See Introduction, under Athanasius.
75
862
From
Con-
stanti-
nople
399
427
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
φυγαδευθεῖσιν ὑπὸ τοῦ μακαρίτου Κωνσταντίου
οὐ κάθοδον εἰς τὰς ἐκκλησίας αὐτῶν, ἀλλὰ τὴν
εἰς τὰς πατρίδας συνεχωρήσαμεν. ᾿Αθανάσιον δὲ
πυνθάνομαι τὸν τολμηρότατον ὑπὸ τοῦ συνήθους.
ἐπαρθέντα θράσους ἀντιλαβέσθαι τοῦ λεγομένου
παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς ἐπισκοπῆς θρόνου, τοῦτο δὲ εἶναι καὶ
τῷ θεοσεβεῖ τῶν ᾿Αλεξανδρέων δήμῳ οὐ μετρίως
ἀηδές. ὅθεν αὐτῷ “προαγορεύομεν ἀπιέναι, τῆς πό-
λεως, ἐξ ἡ ἧς ἂν ἡμέρας τὰ τῆς ἡμετέρας ἡμερότη-
τος γράμματα δέξηται παραχρῆμα' μένοντι δ᾽
αὐτῷ τῆς πόλεως εἴσω μείξους πολὺ καὶ χαλεπω-
τέρας προαγορεύομεν τιμωρίας.
25
Evaypio !
Συγκτησείδιον μικρὸν ἀγρῶν “τεττάρων δοθέν-
των μοι παρὰ τῆς τήθης ἐν τῇ Βιθυνίᾳ τῇ σῇ
διαθέσει δῶρον δίδωμι, ἔλαττον μὲν ἢ ὥστε ἄνδρα
εἰς περιουσίαν ὀνῆσαί τι μέγα καὶ ἀποφῆναι Od-
βιον, ἔχον δὲ οὐδὲ ὡς παντάπασιν ἀτερπῆ τὴν
δόσιν, εἴ σοι τὰ καθ᾽ ἕκαστα περὶ αὐτοῦ διέλθοι-
μι. παίξειν δὲ οὐδὲν κωλύει πρὸς σὲ χαρίτων
γέμοντα καὶ εὐμουσίας. ἀπῴκισται μὲν τῆς θα-
1 Hertlein 46. In the codex found at Chalke, ῥήτορι is
added to the title.
1 Constantius was an Arian and had appointed Bishop
George of Cappadocia to the see of Alexandria. Athanasius
was then in exile by the decree of Constantius.
2 Athanasius had installed himself in his church on
February 21st, 362.
76
TO EVAGRIUS
were exiled by Constantius! of blessed memory
to return to their churches, but only to their own
countries. Yet I learn that the most audacious
Athanasius, elated by his accustomed insolence, has
again seized what is called among them the episcopal
throne,’ and that this is not a little displeasing to the
God-fearing citizens 5 of Alexandria. Wherefore we
publicly warn him to depart from the city forthwith,
on the very day that he shall receive this letter of
our clemency. But if he remain within the city, we
publicly warn him that he will receive a much greater
and more severe punishment.
25
To Evagrius 5
A sMAtt estate of four fields, in Bithynia, was given
to me by my grandmother,® and this I give as an
offering to your affection for me. It is too small
to bring a man any great benefit on the score of
wealth or to make him appear opulent, but even so
it is a gift that cannot wholly fail to please you, as
you will see if I describe its features to you one by
one. And there is no reason why I should not write
in a light vein to you who are so full of the graces
and amenities of culture. It is situated not more
3 i.e. the Pagans.
. 4 Athanasius withdrew from Alexandria, but not from
Egypt, in consequence of this edict. For a second edict
banishing him from Egypt, see p. 151.
5 For Evagrius see above, p. 25.
6 Cf. Vol. 2. 290p; and 251} for his childhood’s associ-
ations with this coast.
77
stanti-
nople
428
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
λάττης σταδίους οὐ πλέον εἴκοσι, καὶ οὔτε ἔμπορος
οὔτε ναύτης ἐνοχλεῖ) λάλος καὶ ὑβριστὴς τῷ χωρίῳ.
οὐ μὴν ἀφήρηται τὰς παρὰ τοῦ Νηρέως. χάριτας
παντελῶς, ἔχει δὲ i ἰχθὺ ὺν πρόσφατον a ἀεὶ καὶ ἀσπαί-
ροντᾶ, καὶ ἐπί τίνος ἀπὸ τῶν δωμάτων προελθὼν
γηλόφου ὄψει τὴν θάλατταν τὴν Προποντίδα Kal
τὰς νήσους τήν τε ἐπώνυμον πόλιν τοῦ γενναίου
βασιλέως, οὐ φυκίοις ἐφεστὼς καὶ βρύοις,. οὐδὲ ἐ ἐνο-
χλούμενος ὑπὸ τῶν ἐκβαλλομένων εἰς τοὺς αἰγια-
λοὺς καὶ τὰς ψάμμους ἀτερπῶν πάνυ καὶ οὐδὲ
ὀνομάξειν ἐπιτηδείων λυμάτων, ἀλλ᾽ ἐπὶ σμίλακος
καὶ θύμου καὶ πόας εὐώδους. ἡσυχία δὲ πολλὴ
κατακλινομένῳ καὶ εἴς τι! βιβλίον ἀφορῶντι, εἶτα
διαναπαύοντι τὴν ὄψιν ἥδιστον ἀπιδεῖν εἰς τὰς
ναῦς καὶ τὴν θάλατταν. τοῦτο ἐμοὶ μειρακίῳ
κομιδῇ νέῳ θερίδιον ἐδόκει φίλτατον" ἔχει γὰρ καὶ
πηγὰς οὐ φαύλας καὶ λουτρὸν οὐκ ἀναφρόδιτον
καὶ κῆπον καὶ δένδρα. ἀνὴρ δ᾽ ὧν ἤδη τὴν πα-
λαιὰν ἐκείνην ἐπόθουν δίαιταν, καὶ ἦλθον πολλά-
κις, καὶ γέγονεν ἡμῖν οὐκ ἔξω λόγων ἡ σύνοδος.
ἔστι δ᾽ ἐνταῦθα καὶ γεωργίας ἐμῆς μικρὸν ὑπό-
μνημα, φυταλία βραχεῖα, φέρουσα οἶνον εὐώδη τε
καὶ ἡδύν, οὐκ ἀναμένοντά τι παρὰ τοῦ χρόνου
προσλαβεῖν. τὸν Διόνυσον ὄψει καὶ τὰς Χάριτας.
ὁ βότρυς δὲ ἐπὶ τῆς ἀμπέλου καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς ληνοῦ
θλιβόμενος ἀπόξει τῶν , ῥόδων, τὸ γλεῦκος δὲ ἐν
τοῖς πίθοις ἤδη νέκταρός ἐστιν ἀπορρὼξ Ὁμήρῳ
πιστεύοντι. τί δῆτα οὐ πολλὴ 3 γέγονεν οὐδ᾽ ἐπὶ
πλέθρα πάνυ πολλὰ ἡ τοιαύτη ἄμπελος ; 8 τυχὸν
1 Hertlein suggests; MSS. εἰς τό.
2 Hercher suggests ; πολὺ MSS, Hertlein.
8 Hercher suggests ; τοιούτων ἀμπέλων MSS., Hertlein.
78
TO EVAGRIUS
than twenty stades from the sea, so that no trader
or sailor with his chatter and insolence disturbs the
place. Yet it is not wholly deprived of the favours
of Nereus, for it has a constant supply of fish, fresh
and still gasping; and if you walk up on to a sort of
hill away from the house, you will see the sea, the
Propontis and the islands, and the city that bears
the name of the noble Emperor ;1 nor will you have
to stand meanwhile on seaweed and brambles, or be
annoyed by the filth that is always thrown out on to
seabeaches and sands, which is so very unpleasant
and even unmentionable; but you will stand on
smilax and thyme and fragrant herbage. Very peace-
ful it is to lie down there and glance into some book,
and then, while resting one’s eyes, it is very agree-
able to gaze at the ships and the sea. When I was
still hardly more than a boy I thought that this was
the most delightful summer place, for it has, more-
over, excellent springs and a charming bath and
garden and trees. When 1 had grown to manhood
I used to long for my old manner of life there and
visited it often, and our meetings there did not lack
talks about literature. Moreover there is there, as
a humble monument of my husbandry, a small vine-
yard that produces a fragrant, sweet wine, which
does not have to wait for time to improve its flavour.
You will have a vision of Dionysus and the Graces.
The grapes on the vine, and when they are being
crushed in the press, smell of roses, and the new-
made wine in the jars is a “rill of nectar,” if one
may trust Homer.? Then why is not such a vine as
this abundant and growing over very many acres?
1 Constantinople, named after Constantine.
2 Odyssey 9. 359 νέκταρός ἐστιν ἀπορρώξ.
79
981
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
μὲν οὐδὲ ἐγὼ γεωργὸς γέγονα πρόθυμος" ἀλλὰ
ἐπεὶ ἐμοὶ νηφάλιος ὁ τοῦ Διονύσου κρατὴρ καὶ
ἐπὶ πολὺ τῶν νυμφῶν δεῖται, ὅ ὅσον εἰς ἐμαυτὸν καὶ
τοὺς φίλους" “ὀλίγον δέ ἐστι τὸ χρῆμα τῶν ἀνδρῶν'
παρεσκευασάμην. νῦν δή σοι δῶρον, ὧ “φίλη
κεφαλή, δίδωμι μικρὸν μὲν ὅπερ ἐστί, χαρίεν δὲ
φίλῳ παρὰ φίλου, οἴκοθεν οἴκαδε, κατὰ τὸν σοφὸν
ποιητὴν Πίνδαρον. τὴν ἐπιστολὴν ἐπισύρων πρὸς
λύχνον γέγραφα, ὥστε, εἴ τι ἡμάρτηται, μὴ
πικρῶς ἐξέταξε μηδ᾽ ὡς ῥήτωρ ῥήτορα.
20
Βασιλείῳ
A μὲν παροιμία φησὶν Οὐ πόλεμον “ἀγγέλλεις,
ἐγὼ δὲ προσθείην ἐκ τῆς κωμφδίας "Ss χρυσὸν
ἀγγείλας ἐπῶν. ἴθι οὗν ἔργοις αὐτὸ δεῖξον, καὶ
σπεῦδε παρ᾽ ἡμᾶς" ἀφίξῃ γὰρ φίλος παρὰ φίλον.
ἡ δὲ mept τὰ πράγματα κοινὴ καὶ συνεχὴς ἀσχολία
δοκεῖ μὲν εἶναί πως τοῖς μὴ πάρεργον αὐτὰ ποιοῦ-
σιν ἐπαχθής, οἱ δὲ τῆς “ἐπιμελείας κοινωνοῦντές
εἰσιν ἐπιεικεῖς, ὡς ἐμαυτὸν πείθω, καὶ συνετοὶ καὶ
πάντως ἱκανοὶ πρὸς πάντα. διδοῦσιν οὖν μοι
ῥᾳστώνην, ὥστε ἐξεῖναι μηδὲν ὀλιγωροῦντι καὶ
ἀναπαύεσθαι: σύνεσμεν γὰρ ἀλλήλοις οὐ μετὰ
τῆς αὐλικῆς ὑποκρίσεως, ἧς μόνης οἶμαί σε μέχρι
1 Hertlein 12.
1 2,6. of water.
2 Olympian Ode 6. 99; 7.5
3 Tor Basil, see ited iavesg
80
TO BASIL
Perhaps I was not a very industrious gardener.
But since my mixing bowl of Dionysus is inclined to
soberness and calls for a large proportion of the
nymphs,! I only provided enough for myself and my
friends—and they are very few. Well then, I now
give this to you as a present, dear heart, and though
it be small, as indeed it is, yet it is precious as coming
from a friend to a friend, “from home, homeward
bound,’ in the words of the wise poet Pindar.”
I have written this letter in haste, by lamplight, so
that, if I have made any mistakes, do not criticise
them severely or as one rhetorician would another.
26
To Basil 3
* Nor of war is thy report,’ 4 says the proverb,
but I would add, from comedy, “O thou whose
words bring tidings of gold!’’5 Come then, show it
by your deeds and hasten to me, for you will come
as friend to friend. It is true that continuous
attention to public business is thought to be a heavy
burden on men who pursue it with all their energy ;
but those who share the task of administration with
me are, I am convinced, honest and reasonable
men, intelligent and entirely capable for all they
have to do. So they give me leisure and the
opportunity of resting without neglecting anything.
For our intercourse with one another is free from
that hypocrisy of courts of which alone you have
4 Plato, Phaedrus 2428, Laws 102p, cf. paroles de paix.
5 Aristophanes, Plutus 268. 6 Plato, Menexenus 9478.
81
VOL, 111, G
-Early
in 362
From
Con-
stanti-
nople
C
382
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
τοῦ δεῦρο πεπειρᾶσθαι, καθ᾽ ἣν ἐπαινοῦντες μι-
σοῦσι τηλικοῦτον μῖσος ἡλίκον οὐδὲ τοὺς πολεμιω-
τάτους, ἀλλὰ μετὰ τῆς προσηκούσης ἀλλήλοις
ἐλευθερίας ἐξελέγχοντές τε ὅταν δέῃ καὶ ἐπιτι-
μῶντες οὐκ ἔλαττον φιλοῦμεν ἀλλήλους τῶν
σφόδρα ἑταίρων: ἔνθεν ἔξεστιν ἡμῖν: ἀπείη δὲ
φθόνος: ἀνειμένοις τε σπουδάζειν καὶ σπουδά-
ζουσι μὴ ταλαιπωρεῖσθαι, καθεύδειν δὲ ἀδεῶς.
ἐπεὶ καὶ ἐγρηγορὼς οὐχ ὑπὲρ ἐμαυτοῦ μᾶλλον
ἢ καὶ ὑπὲρ τῶν ἄλλων ἁπάντων, ὡς εἰκός,
ἐγρήγορα.
Ταῦτα ἴσως κατηδολέσχησά σου καὶ κατελή-
ρησα, παθών τι βλακῶδες: ἐπήνεσα γὰρ ἐμαυτὸν
ὥσπερ ᾿Αστυδάμας. ἀλλ᾽ ἵνα σε πείσω προὔργου
τι μᾶλλον ἡμῖν τὴν σὴν παρουσίαν ἅτε ἀνδρὸς ἔμ-
φρονος ποιήσειν ἢ παραιρήσεσθαί τι τοῦ καιροῦ,
ταῦτα ἐπέστειλα. σπεῦδε οὖν, ὅπερ ἔφην, δημοσίῳ
χρησάμενος δρόμῳ' συνδιατρίψας δὲ ἡμῖν ἐφ᾽
ὅσον σοι φίλον, οἵπερ ἂν θέλῃς ὑφ᾽ ἡμῶν πεμπό-
μενος, ὡς προσῆκόν ἐστι, βαδιεῖ.
27
Θρᾳξίν᾽
; hi ἡ P
Βασιλεῖ μὲν πρὸς κέρδος ὁρῶντι χαλεπὸν ἂν
al r \
ὑμῶν ἐφάνη τὸ αἴτημα, καὶ οὐκ ἂν φήθη δεῖν τὴν
aA , » ᾽ὔ
δημοσίαν εὐπορίαν βλάπτειν τῇ πρὸς τινας ἰδίᾳ
1 Hertlein 47.
1 A proverb derived from Philemon, frag. 190; for the
whole verse, see below, p. 159.
2 2,6, the cursus publicus ; ct. To Hustathius, Ὁ. 139.
82
TO THE THRACIANS
hitherto, I think, had experience, that hypocrisy
which leads men to praise one another even while
they hate with a hatred more deadly than they feel
for their worst enemies in war. But we, though we
refute and criticise one another with appropriate
frankness, whenever it is necessary, love one another
as much as the most devoted friends. Hence it is
that I am able—if I may say so without odium—
to work and yet enjoy relaxation, and when at
work to be free from strain and sleep securely. For
when I have kept vigil it was less on my own behalf
probably than on behalf of all my subjects.
But perhaps I have been wearying you with my
chatter and nonsense, displaying stupid conceit, for
I have praised myself, like Astydamas.t However, I
have despatched this letter to you to convince you
that your presence, wise man that you are, will be
serviceable to me rather than any waste of my time.
Make haste then, as I said, and use the state post.?
And when yeu have stayed with me as long as you
desire you shall go your way whithersoever you
please, with an escort furnished by me, as is proper.
27
To the Thracians 8
To an Emperor who had an eye solely to gain,
your request would have appeared hard to grant,
and he would not have thought that he ought to
injure the public prosperity by granting a par ticular
5. An answer to a petition. For Julian’s remission of
arrears, ἐλλείματα, Latin reliqua, of taxes at Antioch, cf.
Miscpogon, 3658. For his popularity with the provincials
due to this liberality, cf. Ammianus 25, 4. 15.
83
362
Before
May
Froin
Con-
stanti-
nople
429
407
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
χάριτι" ἐπεὶ δὲ ἡμεῖς οὐχ ὅ, τι πλεῖστα παρὰ τῶν
ὑπηκόων ἀθροίζειν πεποιήμεθα σκοπόν, ἀλλ᾽ ὅτι
πλείστων ἀγαθῶν αὐτοῖς αἴτιοι γίγνεσθαι, τοῦτο
καὶ ὑμῖν ἀπολύσει τὰ ὀφλήματα. ἀπολύσει δὲ
οὐχ ἁπλῶς ἅπαντα, ἀλλὰ μερισθήσεται τὸ πρᾶγ-
μα, τὸ μὲν εἰς ὑμᾶς, τὸ δὲ εἰς τὴν τῶν στρατιω-
τῶν χρείαν, ἐξ ἡ ἧς οὐκ ἐλάχιστα καὶ αὐτοὶ δήπου
φέρεσθε, τὴν εἰρήνην καὶ τὴν ἀσφάλειαν. τοιγαρ-
οῦν μέχρι μὲν τῆς τρίτης ἐπινεμήσεως ἀφίεμεν
ὑμῖν πάντα, ὅσα ἐκ τοῦ φθάνοντος ἐλλείπει χρό-
νου" μετὰ ταῦτα δὲ εἰσοίσετε κατὰ τὸ ἔθος. ὑμῖν
τε γὰρ τὰ ἀφιέμενα χάρις ἱκανή, “καὶ ἡμῖν τῶν
κοινῶν οὐκ ἀμελητέον. περὶ τούτου καὶ τοῖς
ἐπάρχοις ἐπέσταλκα, ἵν᾽ ἡ χάρις ὑμῖν εἰς ἔργον.
προχωρήσῃ. ἐρρωμένους ὑμᾶς οἱ θεοὶ σώζοιεν
τὸν ἅπαντα χρόνον.
28
᾿Ανεπίγραφος ὑπὲρ ᾿Αργείων }
Ὑπὲρ τῆς ᾿Αργείων πόλεως πολλὰ μὲν ἄν τις
εἰπεῖν ἔχοι, σεμνύνειν αὐτὴν ἐθέλων, παλαιὰ καὶ
νέα πράγματα. τοῦ τε γὰρ Τρωικοῦ, καθάπερ
1 Hertlein 35.
1 Apparently he means that the arrears are remitted down
to the year 359, but they must pay what is due from that date.
2 If the date is correct, this was probably a private com-
munication to the newly- appointed Proconsul of Achaia,
Praetextatus. Under the Roman dominion, Greek cities to
settle their disputes had recourse to lawsuits which were
often long and tedious. Seven years before Julian’s accession,
Corinth had successfully claimed the right to tax Argos.
84
ON BEHALF OF THE ARGIVES
indulgence to any. But since I have not made it
my aim to collect the greatest possible sums from
my subjects, but rather to be the source of the
greatest possible blessings to them, this fact shall for
you too cancel your debts. Nevertheless it will not
cancel the whole sum absolutely, but there shall be
a division of the amount, and part shall be remitted
to you, part shall be used for the needs of the army ;
since from it you yourselves assuredly gain no slight
advantages, namely, peace and security. Accordingly
I remit for you, down to the third assessment,! the
whole sum that is in arrears for the period preceding.
But thereafter you will contribute as usual. For the
amount remitted is sufficient indulgence for you,
while for my part I must not neglect the public
interest. Concerning this I have sent orders to the
prefects also, in order that your indulgence may be
carried into effect. May the gods keep you prosper-
ous for all time!
28
On behalf of the Argives; unaddressed 3
On behalf of the city of Argos, if one wished to
recount her honours, many are the glorious deeds
both old and new that one might relate. For
instance, in the achievements of the Trojan War
The money was spent on wild beast shows and similar enter-
tainments at Corinth. The Argives appealed to Julian for
a revision of the case, and he now writes to the Proconsul of
Achaia, leaving the decision to him, but strongly supporting
the claim of Argos. As this letter is the only evidence for
the Corinthian exaction or the Argive appeal, we do not
know the result. Nor can we determine whether Julian is
writing in 362 or 363. It seems unlikely that the Argives
appealed to him when he was a student at Athens in 355,
as some scholars have maintained, See Introduction. ‘
5
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
C ὕστερον ᾿Αθηναίοις καὶ Λακεδαιμονίοις τοῦ Περσι-
408
fal 1 / \ / > , 7 ὃ al A
Kov,' προσήκει TO πλέον ἐκείνοις ἔργου. δοκεῖ μὲν
Ν ” fel “ \ a ς /
yap ἄμφω κοινῇ πραχθῆναι παρὰ τῆς Ἑλλάδος"
ἄξιον δὲ ὥσπερ τῶν ἔργων καὶ τῆς φροντίδος,
οὕτω καὶ τῶν ἐπαίνων τοὺς ἡγεμόνας τὸ πλέον
μετέχειν. ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν ἀρχαῖά πως εἶναι δο-
a \ \ 5» \ 4 σ΄ « a /
κεῖ, Ta δὲ ἐπὶ τούτοις, ἥ τε Ηρακλειδῶν κάθοδος
καὶ ὡς τῷ πρεσβυτάτῳ γέρας éEnpéOn, ἥ τε εἰς
/ a
Μακεδόνας ἐκεῖθεν ἀποικία, καὶ τὸ Λακεδαιμο-
/ a
νίοις οὕτω πλησίον παροικοῦντας ἀδούλωτον ἀεὶ
καὶ ἐλευθέραν φυλάξαι τὴν πόλιν, οὐ μικρᾶς οὐδὲ
a / > ὃ / 5 > \ ὃ} \ \
τῆς τυχούσης ἀνὸρείας ἣν. ἀλλὰ δὴ καὶ TA TO-
σαῦτα περὶ τοὺς Πέρσας ὑπὸ τῶν Μακεδόνων
γενόμενα ταύτῃ προσήκειν τῇ πόλει δικαίως ἄν
΄ \
τις ὑπολάβοι" Φιλίππου τε yap καὶ ᾿Αλεξάνδρου
n lal /
τῶν πάνυ TOV προγόνων πατρὶς ἣν αὕτη. Ῥω-
/ \ Ὁ > e “ al a \
patos δὲ ὕστερον οὐχ ἁλοῦσα μᾶλλον ἢ κατὰ
ξυμμαχίαν ὑπήκουσε, καὶ ὥσπερ οἶμαι μετεῖχε
\ “τὺ / e \ “ > , \
καὶ αὐτὴ καθάπερ ai λοιπαὶ τῆς ἐλευθερίας Kal
lal / / -“
τῶν ἄλλων δικαίων, ὁπόσα νέμουσι ταῖς περὶ τὴν
ς ’ὔ , e lal A ὦ
Ελλάδα πόλεσιν οἱ κρατοῦντες ἀεί.
cal \ / a
Κορίνθιοι δὲ viv αὐτὴν προσνεμομένην 5 αὐτοῖς"
οὕτω γὰρ εἰπεῖν εὐπρεπέστερον' ὑπὸ 8 τῆς βασι-
1 Duebner suggests ; lacuna Hertlein, MSS.
2 Hertlein suggests ; MSS. προσγενομένην.
3 Hertlein suggests ; ἀπὸ MSS.
1 Temenus the Heraclid received Argos as his share ; his
descendants were expelled and colonised Macedonia; cf.
Julian, Oration 3, 106p ; Herodotus 8. 137.
86
ON BEHALF OF THE ARGIVES
they may claim to have played the chief part even
as did the Athenians and Lacedaemonians, in later
times, in the Persian War. For though both wars
are held to have been waged by all Greece in
common, yet it is fitting that the leaders, just as
they had the larger share of toils and anxiety, should
have also a larger share of the praise. These events,
however, may seem somewhat antiquated. But
those that followed, I mean the return of the Hera-
cleidae, the taking of his birthright from the eldest,1
the sending from Argos of the colony to Mace-
donia, and the fact that, though they were such
near neighbours to the Lacedaemonians, they always
preserved their city unenslaved and free, are proofs
of no slight or common fortitude. But, further-
more, all those great deeds accomplished by the
Macedonians against the Persians might with justice
be considered to belong to this city; for this was
the native land of the ancestors of Philip and Alex-
ander,” those illustrious men. And in later days
Argos obeyed the Romans, not so much because she
was conquered as in the character of an ally, and,
as I think, she too, like the other states, shared in
the independence and the other rights whicli our
rulers always bestow on the cities of Greece.
But now the Corinthians, since Argos has been
assigned to their territory—for this is the less in-
vidious way of expressing it—by the sovereign city,’
2 Alexander claimed to be an Argive. For the colonisation
of Macedonia cf. Herodotus 5. 22.
3 Rome, cf. Oration 4. 1310. Corinth had been made
a Roman colony by Augustus, and claimed authority over
certain other cities that were not colonies; the Roman
Proconsul regularly resided at Corinth.
87
409
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
4 / a
λευούσης πόλεως εἰς κακίαν ἐπαρθέντες συντελεῖν
αὑτοῖς ἀναγκάζουσι, καὶ ταύτης ἦρξαν, ὥς φασι,
τῆς καινοτομίας ἕβδομος οὗτος ἐνιαυτός, οὔτε τὴν
Δελφῶν οὔτε τὴν ᾿Ηλείων ἀτέλειαν, ἧς ἠξιώθησαν
a / “
ἐπὶ τῷ διατιθέναι τοὺς παρὰ σφίσιν ἱεροὺς ἀγῶνας,
> / an
αἰδεσθέντες. τεττάρων yap ὄντων, ws ἴσμεν, TOV
μεγίστων καὶ λαωπροτάτων ἀγώνων περὶ τὴν Ἕλ-
λάδα, "Arcelor μὲν ᾿Ολύμπια, Δελφοὶ δὲ Πύθια,
\ \ 5 ᾽ A , , - \ \ a
καὶ τὰ ἐν ᾿Ισθμῷ Κορίνθιοι, ᾿Αργεῖοι δὲ τὴν τῶν
Νεμέων συγκροτοῦσι πανήγυριν. πῶς οὖν εὔλο-
4
γον ἐκείνοις μὲν ὑπάρχειν τὴν ἀτέλειαν τὴν πάλαι
lal a e
δοθεῖσαν, τοὺς δὲ ἐπὶ τοῖς ὁμοίοις δαπανήμασιν
> / / \ \ > \ \ > ‘ e
ἀφεθέντας πάλαι, τυχὸν δὲ οὐδὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν ὑπα-
“Ὁ “ ’ὔ
χθέντας νῦν ἀφηρῆσθαι τὴν προνομίαν ἧς ἠξιώ-
θησαν; πρὸς δὲ τούτοις ᾿Ηλεῖοι μὲν καὶ Δελφοὶ
\ a
διὰ τῆς πολυθρυλήτου πενταετηρίδος ἅπαξ ἐπι-
a \ a
τελεῖν εἰώθασι, διττὰ δ᾽ ἐστὶ Néwea παρὰ τοῖς
"A , θ / "T θ \ K θί >
ργείοις, καθάπερ Ισθμια παρὰ Κορινθίοις. ἐν
/ / aA 4 /
μέντοι τούτῳ TO χρόνῳ Kal δύο πρόκεινται παρὰ
n > nr
τοῖς ᾿Αργείοις ἀγῶνες ἕτεροι τοιοίδε, ὥστε εἶναι
n / lal
τέσσαρας τοὺς πάντας ἐν ἐνιαυτοῖς τέσσαρσι. πῶς
οὖν εἰκὸς ἐκείνους μὲν ἀπράγμονας εἶναι λειτουρ-
γοῦντας ἅπαξ, τούτους δὲ ὑπάγεσθαι καὶ πρὸς ἑτέ-
7 a
ρων συντέλειαν ἐπὶ τετραπλασίοις τοῖς οἴκοι λει-
/ » »5ῸΝ \ «ς \ »Q\
τουργήμασιν, ἄλλως TE οὐδὲ πρὸς “Ελλληνικὴν οὐδὲ
παλαιὰν πανήγυριν ; οὐ γὰρ ἐς χορηγίαν ἀγώνων
γυμνικῶν ἢ μουσικῶν οἱ Κορίνθιοι τῶν πολλῶν
\
δέονται χρημάτων, ἐπὶ δὲ τὰ κυνηγέσια τὰ πολ-
1 ἡ, ὁ. the Corinthians ought to have allowed similar
immunity to Argos.
2 One of these festivals was the Heraean games.
88
ON BEHALF OF THE ARGIVES
have grown insolent in ill-doing and are compelling
the Argives to pay them tribute; it is seven years,
as I am told, since they began this innovation, and
they were not abashed by the immunity of Delphi
or of the Eleans,! which was granted to them so that
they might administer their sacred games. For
there are, as we know, four very important and
splendid games in Greece ; the Eleans celebrate the
Olympian games, the Delphians the Pythian, the
Corinthians those at the Isthmus, and the Argives
the Nemean festival. How then can it be reason-
able that those others should retain the immunity
that was granted to them in the past, whereas the
Argives, who, in consideration of a similar outlay, had
their tribute remitted in the past, or perhaps were
not even subject to tribute originally, should now be
deprived of the privilege of which they were deemed
worthy? Moreover, Elis and Delphi are accustomed
to contribute only once in the course of their far-
famed four-year cycles, but in that period there
are two celebrations of the Nemean games among
the Argives, and likewise of the Isthmian among the,
Corinthians. And besides, in these days two other
games? of this sort have been established among
the Argives, so that there are in all in four years
four games. How then is it reasonable that those
others who bear the burden of this function only
once should be left free from the tax, whereas
the Argives are obliged to contribute to yet other
games in addition to their fourfold expenditure at
home; especially as the contribution is for a festival
that is neither Hellenic nor of ancient date? For
it is not to furnish gymnastic or musical contests
that the Corinthians need so much money, but they
89
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
λακις ἐν τοῖς θεάτροις ἐπιτελούμενα ἄρκτους Kal
παρδάλεις ὠνοῦνται. ἀτὰρ αὐτοὶ μὲν εἰκότως φέ-
ρουσι διὰ τὸν πλοῦτον τῶν ἀναλωμάτων τὸ μέγε-
A a
Qos, ἄλλως TE καὶ πολλῶν πόλεων, ὡς εἰκός,
αὐτοῖς εἰς τοῦτο συναιρομένων, ὥστε ὠνοῦνται τὴν
/ an / 1 >A o δὲ /
τέρψιν τοῦ φρονήματος. ργεῖοι δὲ χρημάτων τε
Μ 5 / \ a / \ > +
ἔχοντες ἐνδεέστερον καὶ ξενικῇ θέᾳ καὶ παρ᾽ ἄλλοις
ἐπιδουλεύειν ἀναγκαζόμενοι πῶς οὐκ ἄδικα μὲν
n 7
καὶ παράνομα, τῆς δὲ περὶ τὴν πόλιν ἀρχαίας
’
δυνάμεώς τε καὶ δόξης ἀνάξια πείσονται, ὄντες
γ᾽ αὐτοῖς ἀστυγείτονες, ods προσῆκον ἣν ἀγα-
πᾶσθαι μᾶλλον, εἴπερ ὀρθῶς ἔχει τὸ “οὐδ᾽ ἂν βοῦς
/ ' a
ἀπόλοιτο, εἰ μὴ διὰ κακίαν γειτόνων ᾽" ᾿Αργεῖοι
Ν
δὲ ἐοίκασιν οὐχ ὑπὲρ ἑνὸς πολυπραγμονούμενοι
, a \ ’ > a > >
βοιδίου ταῦτα τοὺς Κορινθίους αἰτιᾶσθαι, ἀλλ
ig \ n ‘ / > 4 >
ὑπὲρ πολλὼν καὶ μεγάλων ἀναλωμάτων, οἷς οὐ
δικαίως εἰσὶν ὑπεύθυνοι.
, \
Καίτοι πρὸς τοὺς Κορινθίους εἰκότως av τις καὶ
a Σ , a a la}
τοῦτο προσθείη, πότερον αὐτοῖς δοκεῖ καλῶς ἔχειν
a n a «ς / “ / Xx
τοῖς τῆς παλαιᾶς “Ελλάδος ἕπεσθαι νομίμοις ἢ
a a ” ὃ a \ A
μᾶλλον οἷς ἔναγχος δοκοῦσι παρὰ τῆς βασιλευ-
"
οὔσης προσειληφέναι πόλεως ; εἰ μὲν γὰρ τὴν
τῶν παλαιῶν νομίμων ἀγαπῶσι σεμνότητα, οὐκ
a /
᾿Αργείοις μᾶλλον eis Κόρινθον ἢ ἹΚορινθίοις εἰς
ἼΑργος συντελεῖν προσήκει" εἰ δὲ τοῖς νῦν ὑπάρ-
1 ὥστε Bidez suggests; ὧν Reiske; ὠνοῦνται---φρόνηματος
Hertlein, following Horkel. would delete; ὠνοῦνται οὖν
Capps suggests; ὠνουμένων Keil.
I follow Heyler in interpreting φρόνημα as the pleasure-
900
ON BEHALF OF THE ARGIVES
buy bears and panthers for the hunting shows which
they often exhibit in their theatres. And they
themselves by reason of their wealth are naturally
able to support these great expenses,—especially as
many other cities, as is to be expected, help by con-
tributing for this purpose,—so that they purchase the
pleasure of indulging their temperaments.4 But the
Argives are not so well off for money, and com-
pelled as they are to slave for a foreign spectacle
held in the country of others, will they not be
suffering unjust and illegal treatment and moreover
unworthy of the ancient power and renown of their
city being, as they are, near neighbours of Corinth,
who therefore ought to be the more kindly treated,
if indeed the saying is true, “ Not so much as an ox
would perish? except through the wrongdoing of
one’s neighbours”? But it appears that when the
Argives bring these charges against the Corinthians
they are not raising a dispute about a single paltry
ox, but about many heavy expenses to which they
are not fairly liable.
And yet one might put this question also to the
Corinthians, whether they think it right to abide
by the laws and customs of ancient Greece, or rather
by those which it seems they recently took over
from the sovereign city? For if they respect the
high authority of ancient laws and customs, it is no
more fitting for the Argives to pay tribute to Corinth
than for the Corinthians to pay it to Argos. If, on
loving ‘‘temperament,” genius, of the Corinthians. Others
translate ‘‘ pride.”
2 A paraphrase of Hesiod, Works and Days 348, οὐδ᾽
ἂν Bots ἀπόλοιτ, εἰ μὴ γείτων κακὸς εἴῃ ; cf. Plautus, Mercatur
4, 4, 31.
gt
D
410
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
Eaot τῇ πόλει, ἐπειδὴ τὴν Ῥωμαϊκὴν ἀποικίαν
ἐδέξαντο, ἰσχυριζόμενοι πλέον ἔχειν ἀξιοῦσι, Tap-
αἰτησόμεθα μετρίως αὐτοὺς μὴ τῶν πατέρων
φρονεῖν μεῖζον, μηδὲ ὅσα καλῶς ἐκεῖνοι κρίναντες
ταῖς περὶ τὴν “Ελλάδα διεφύλαξαν πόλεσιν ἔθιμα,
ταῦτα καταλύειν καὶ καινοτομεῖν ἐπὶ βλάβῃ καὶ
λύμῃ τῶν ἀστυγειτόνων, ἄλλως τε καὶ νεωτέρᾳ
χρωμένους τῇ ψήφῳ καὶ τὴν ἀπραγμοσύνην τοῦ
λαχόντος ὑπὲρ τῆς ᾿Αργείων πόλεως τὴν δίκην
εἰσελθεῖν ἕρμαιον ἔχοντας τῆς πλεονεξίας. εἰ γὰρ
ἐφῆκεν ἔξω τῆς “Ελλάδος ἀπάγων τὴν δίκην, οἱ
Κορίνθιοι ἔλαττόν τε ἰσχύειν ἔμελλον καὶ τὸ δί-
καιον ἐξεταζόμενον κακῶς φαίνεσθαι πρὸς τῶν
πολλῶν καὶ γενναίων τούτων συνηγόρων, ὑφ᾽ ὧν
εἰκός ἐστι τὸν δικαστήν, προστιθεμένου καὶ τοῦ
κατὰ τὴν πόλιν ἀξιώματος, δυσωπούμενον ταύτην
τὴν ψῆφον ἐξενεγκεῖν.
᾿Αλλὰ τὰ μὲν ὑπὲρ τῆς πόλεως δίκαια καὶ τῶν
4 f > / > 7 29 “ \ / 2 al
PNTOPWY, εἰ μόνον ἀκούειν ἐθελοιῖς καὶ λέγειν αὑτοῖς
ἐπιτραπείη τὴν δίκην, ἐξ ὑπαρχῆς πεύσῃ, καὶ τὸ
παραστὰν ἐκ τῶν λεγομένων ὀρθῶς κριθήσεται.
ὅτι δὲ χρὴ καὶ τοῖς τὴν πρεσβείαν ταύτην προσά-
γουσι δι’ ἡμῶν πεισθῆναι, μικρὰ προσθεῖναι χρὴ
περὶ αὐτῶν. Διογένης μέν τοι καὶ Λαμπρίας φι-
a / 7 5, a θ᾽ Crem
λοσοφοῦσι μέν, εἴπερ τις ἄλλος τῶν KAU ἡμᾶς,
1 Hertlein suggests ; εἰς τὴν πόλιν Reiske ; τὴν πόλιν MSS.
1 2.6. the present embassy led by Diogenes and Lamprias ;
see below, 4108.
2 Julian now addresses the Proconsul directly. If 355 is the
92
i .. ..
ON BEHALF OF THE ARGIVES
the other hand, in reliance on the laws they
now have, they claim that their city has gained
advantages since they received the colony from
Rome, then we will exhort them in moderate lan-
guage not to be more arrogant than their fathers
and not to break up the customs which their fathers
with sound judgment maintained for the cities of
Greece, or remodel them to the injury and detri-
ment of their neighbours; especially since they are
relying on a recent decision, and, in their avarice,
regard as a piece of luck the inefficiency of the man
who was appointed to represent the case of the city
of Argos. For if he had appealed and taken the
suit outside of the jurisdiction of Greece, the Corin-
thians would have had less influence; their rights,
would have been shown to be weak, when investigated
by these numerous and upright advocates,) and,
swayed by these, it is likely that the judge would
have been awed into giving the proper decision,
especially as the renown of Argos would also have
had weight. |
But as for the rights of the case with respect to
the city you? will learn them from the beginning
from the orators if only you will consent to hear
them and they are permitted to present their case,
and then the situation will be correctly judged from
their arguments. But in order to show that we
ought to place confidence in those who have come
on this embassy, I must add a few words concerning
them. Diogenes and Lamprias*® are indeed philo-
sophers equal to any in our time, and they have
correct date the Proconsul may be the insolent person referred
to in 70 Theodorus, Ὁ. 37, as having slighted Julian’s wishes.
8. These men are otherwise unknown.
93
411
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
τῆς πολιτείας δὲ τὰ μὲν ἔντιμα καὶ Kepdaréa
διαπεφεύγασι' τῇ πατρίδι δὲ ἐπαρκεῖν ἀεὶ κατὰ
δύναμιν προθυμούμενοι, ὅταν ἡ πόλις ἐν χρείᾳ
μεγάλῃ γένηται, τότε ῥητορεύουσι καὶ πολιτεύ-
ονται καὶ πρεσβεύουσι καὶ δαπανῶσιν ἐκ τῶν
ὑπαρχόντων προθύμως, ἔργοις ἀπολογούμενοι τὰ
φιλοσοφίας ὀνείδη καὶ τὸ δοκεῖν ἀχρήστους εἶναι
ταῖς πόλεσι τοὺς μετιόντας φιλοσοφίαν ψεῦδος
ἐλέγχοντες" χρῆται γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἥ τε πατρὶς εἰς
n \ “ a b] a \ / ᾽
ταῦτα, καὶ πειρῶνται βοηθεῖν αὐτῇ τὸ δίκαιον δι
ἡμῶν, ἡμεῖς δ᾽ αὖθις διὰ σοῦ. τοῦτο γὰρ καὶ
μόνον λείπεται τοῖς ἀδικουμένοις εἰς τὸ σωθῆναι,
τὸ τυχεῖν δικαστοῦ κρίνειν τε ἐθέλοντος καὶ δυνα-
μένου καλῶς: ὁπότερον" γὰρ ἂν ἀπῇ τούτων,
ἐξαπατηθέντος ἢ καταπροδόντος αὐτοῦ τὸ δίκαιον
οἴχεσθαι πάντως ἀνάγκη. ἀλλ᾽ ἐπειδὴ νῦν ἡμῖν
τὰ μὲν τῶν δικαστῶν ὑπάρχει κατ᾽ εὐχάς, λέγειν
δ᾽ οὐκ ἔνι μὴ τότε ἐφέντας, ἀξιοῦσι τοῦτο πρῶτον
αὐτοῖς ἀνεθῆναι, καὶ μὴ τὴν ἀπραγμοσύνην τοῦ
τότε συνειπόντος τῇ πόλει καὶ τὴν δίκην ἐπιτρο-
πεύσαντος αἰτίαν αὐτῇ γενέσθαι εἰς τὸν ἔπειτα
αἰῶνα βλάβης τοσαύτης.
ἼΛτοπον δὲ οὐ χρὴ νομίζειν τὸ τὴν δίκην αὖθις
ἀνάδικον ποιεῖν" τοῖς μὲν γὰρ ἰδιώταις ξυμφέρει
τὸ κρεῖττον καὶ λυσιτελέστερον ὀλίγον παριδεῖν,
τὴν εἰς τὸν ἔπειτα χρόνον ἀσφάλειαν ὠνουμένοις"
ὄντος γὰρ αὐτοῖς ὀλίγου βίου, ἡδὺ μὲν Kal τὸ ἐπ᾽
ὀλίγον ἡσυχίας ἀπολαῦσαι, φοβερὸν δὲ καὶ τὸ
1 Hertlein suggests; MSS., Hertlein ἔννομα.
* 8 τι Hertlein suggests for lacuna, cf. τίς for πότερος
Caesars 320 Ο ; ὁπότερον Aldine.
94
ON BEHALF OF THE ARGIVES
avoided the honours and lucrative offices of the
state; but they are ever zealous to serve their
country to the best of their ability, and whenever
the city is in any great emergency, then they plead
causes, assist in the government, go on embassies,
and spend generously from their own resources.
Thus by their actions they refute the reproaches
brought against philosophy,! and disprove the com-
mon opinion that those who pursue philosophy are
useless to the state. For their country employs
them for these tasks and they are now endeavouring
to aid her to obtain justice by my assistance, as 1
in turn by yours. For this is indeed the only hope
of safety left for the oppressed, that they may
obtain a judge who has both the will and ability
to give a fair decision. For if either of these
qualities be lacking, so that he is either imposed on
or faithless to his trust, then there is no help for
it—the right must perish. But now, since we have
judges who-are all that we could wish, and yet are
not able to plead because they did not appeal at the
time, they beg that this disability may first of all be
removed for them, and that the lack of energy of
the man who at that time was the city’s advocate
and had the suit in charge may not be the cause of
so great detriment to her for all time to come.
And we ought not to think it irregular that the
ease should again be brought to trial. For, though
in the affairs of private persons it is expedient to
forego a little one’s advantage and the more profit-
able course, and thereby purchase security for the
future—since in their little life it is pleasant, even
for a little, to enjoy peace and quiet; moreover it
1 Cf. Plato, Republic 489a.
95
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
πρὸς τῶν δικαστηρίων ἀπολέσθαι κρινόμενον, καὶ
παισὶ παραπέμψαι τὴν δίκην ἀτελῆ: ὥστε κινδυ-
νεύει κρεῖσσον εἶναι τὸ καὶ ὁπωσοῦν προσλαβεῖν
ἥμισυ ἢ περὶ τοῦ παντὸς ἀγωνιζόμενον ἀποθανεῖν"
τὰς πόλεις δὲ ἀθανάτους οὔσας εἰ μή τις δικαίως
κρίνας τῆς πρὸς ἀχλήλας φιλονεικίας ἀπαλλάξει,
a ἄνατον ἔχειν τὴν δύσνοιαν πάντως ἀναγκαῖον,
καὶ τὸ μῖσος δὲ ὦ ἰσχυρὸν τῷ χρόνῳ κρατυνόμενον.
εἴρηται, φασὶν οἱ ῥήτορες, & γ᾽ ἐμὸς λόγος,
κρίνοις δ᾽ ἂν αὐτὸς τὰ δέοντα.
29
᾿Ιουλιανῷ θείῳ 1
Ei τὰς σὰς ἐπιστολὰς ἐγὼ παρὰ φαῦλον ποιοῦ-
μαι,
ἐξ Hea δή μοι ἔπειτα θεοὶ φρένας ὥλεσαν αὐτοί.
τί γὰρ οὐκ ἔνεστιν ἐν τοῖς σοῖς καλόν; εὔνοια,
πίστις, ἀλήθεια, καὶ τὸ πρὸ πούτων, οὗ “χωρὶς
οὐδέν ἐστι τἄλλα, φρόνησις ἅπασι τοῖς ἑαυτῆς
μέρεσιν, ἀγχινοίᾳ, συνέσει, εὐβουλίᾳ διαδεικνυ-
μένη. ὅτι δὲ οὐκ ἀντιγράφω, τοῦτο γὰρ καὶ
κατεμέμψω, σχολὴν οὐκ ἄγω, μὰ τοὺς θεούς, καὶ
μὴ νομίσῃς ἀκκισμὸν εἶναι μηδὲ παιδιὰν τὸ
πρᾶγμα. μαρτύρομαι τοὺς λογίους θεούς, ὅτι
πλὴν Ὅμηρου καὶ Πλάτωνος οὐκ ἀκολουθεῖ μοι
πυκτίον οὔτε φιλόσοφον οὔτε ῥητορικὸν οὔτε
γραμματικὸν οὔθ᾽ ἱστορία τις τῶν ἐν κοινῇ χρείᾳ"
1 Papadopoulos 1 *; not in Hertlein.
96
TO HIS UNCLE JULIAN
is a terrible thought that one may die while one’s
case is on trial before the courts and hand down
the lawsuit to one’s heirs unsettled, so that it seems
better to secure the half by any possible means than
to die while struggling to gain the whole,—cities on
the other hand do not die, and unless there be
found someone to give a just decision that will free
them from their quarrels with one another, they
must inevitably maintain undying ill-will, and their
hatred moreover is deep-rooted and gains strength
with time.
I have said my say, as the orators express it. You
must yourselves determine what is proper to do.
29
To his Uncle Julian
Ir I set small store by your letters, “Then the
gods themselves have destroyed my wits.”’! For
all the virtues are displayed in them: goodwill,
loyalty, truth, and what is more than all these, since
without it the rest are nought, wisdom, displayed by
you in all her several kinds, shrewdness, intelligence
and good judgement. You reproached me for not
answering them, but I have no time, heaven knows,
and pray do not suppose that this is affectation or
a jest. The gods of eloquence bear me witness
that, except for Homer and Plato, I have with me
not so much as a pamphlet 2 on philosophy, rhetoric,
or grammar, or any historical work of the sort that is
in general use. And even these that I have are
1 Tliad 7. 360.
2 Lit. ‘‘ folding tablet ;” the more usual form is πτυκτίον.
97
VOL, ΠῚ, u
362
April
From
Con-
stanti-
nople
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
καὶ ταῦτα δὲ αὐτὰ τοῖς περιάπτοις ἔοικε καὶ
φυλακτηρίοις" δέδεται γὰρ ἀεί. ὀλίγα λοιπὸν
καὶ εὔχομαι καίτοι δεόμενος, ὡς εἰκός, εἴ πέρ ποτε
ἄχλοτε καὶ νῦν εὐχῶν πολλῶν πάνυ, καὶ μεγάλων.
ἀλλ᾽ ἄγχει πάντοθεν * περιεχόμενα τὰ πράγ-
ματα, ὄψει δὲ ἴσως καὶ αὐτός, ὅταν εἰς τὴν Συρίαν
γένωμαι.
Περὶ δὲ ὧν ἐπέστειλάς μοι, πάντα ἐπαινῶ,
πάντα θαυμάζω ἃ évvoeis,? οὐδέν ἐστιν ἀπό-
βλητον ἐξ ἐκείνων ἴσθι οὖν ὅτι καὶ πάντα
πράξω σὺν θεοῖς.
τοὺς κίονας τοὺς Δαφναίους θοῦ πρὸ τῶν
ἄλλων' τοὺς ἐκ βασιλείων τῶν πανταχοῦ λαβὼν
ἀποκόμισον, ὑπόστησον δὲ εἰς τὰς ἐκείνων χώρας
τοὺς ἐκ τῶν ἔναγχος κατειλημμένων οἰκιῶν" εἰ δὲ
κἀκεῖθεν ἐπιλείποιεν, ὀπτῆς πλίνθου καὶ κόνεως
τέως * ἔξωθεν μαρμαρώσαντες εὐτελεστέροις XPN-
σώμεθα' τὸ δὲ ὅσιονδϑ ὅτι πολυτελείας ἐ ἐστὶ κρεῖττον
καὶ τοῖς εὖ φρονοῦσιν ἡδονὴν ἐν βίῳ καὶ τῇ χρήσει
ἔχον πολλήν, αὐτὸς οἶδας.
1 Weil, πάντοτε MS.
2 MS. ἐν ois; ἅ ἐννοεῖς Weil.
3 πάντα ἐπαινῶ--ἐκείνων Weil regards as quotation from
the elder Julian’s letter.
4 Capps; MS. ἕως, Biicheler deletes.
5 Asmus, cf. Vol. 2, 2138p; MS. αἴσιον.
1 For the use of such amulets in the Mithraic ritual to
which Asmus here sees an allusion, see Mithrasliturgie, p. 20,
Dieterich.
2 Julian left Constantinople soon after May 12th for
Antioch, where his uncle then was.
8. The ‘temple of Apollo at Daphne, the suburb of Antioch,
which was burned on October 22nd during Julian’s visit,
98
TO HIS UNCLE JULIAN
like personal ornaments or amulets,! for they are
always tied fast to me. For the rest I do not even
offer up many prayers, though naturally I need now
more than ever to pray very often and very long.
But I am hemmed in and choked by public business,
as you will perhaps see for yourself when I arrive in
Syria.?
As for the business mentioned in your letter, I
approve of everything and admire everything you
propose, nothing of that must be rejected. Be
assured, then, that with the aid of the gods I shall
leave nothing undone.
First of all set up the pillars of the temple of
Daphne ;* take those that are in any palace anywhere,
and convey them thence; then set up in their places
others taken from the recently occupied houses.*
And if there are not enough even from that source,
let us use cheaper ones. meanwhile, of baked brick
and plaster, casing them with marble,> for you are
well aware that piety is to be preferred to splendour,
and, when put in practice, secures much pleasure for
the righteous in this life. Concerning the affair
had fallen into disrepair in the reign of Constantius, and
columns had been removed by the Christians; cf. Zonaras
13. 12, who relates that at Tarsus, on his way to Persia,
Julian learned that the Christians had robbed the temple of
Asclepius at Aegae, on the coast, of its columns and used
them to build achurch. Julian ordered the columns to be
restored to the temple at the expense of the Christians.
* Perhaps he means the Christian church dedicated to St.
Babylas, which his half-brother Gallus had erected opposite
the temple.
> i.e. a coat of stucco made with marble dust,
99
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
Περὶ δὲ τῶν πρὸς “Λαυρίκιον * οὐθὲν οἶμαι δεῖν
ἐπιστέλλειν σοι, πλὴν τοσοῦτον παραινῶ, πᾶσαν
ὀργὴν ἄφες, ἐπίτρεψον ἅπαντα τῇ δίκῃ, τὰς ἀκοὰς
ὑφέξων αὐτοῦ τοῖς λόγοις μετὰ πάσης πίστεως
τῆς πρὸς τὸ δίκαιον. καὶ οὔ φημι τοῦτο, ὡς οὐκ
ἐπαχθῆ τὰ πρὸς σὲ γραφέντα καὶ πλήρη πάσης
ὕβρεως καὶ ὑπεροψίας, ἀλλὰ χρὴ φέρειν' ͵ ἀνδρὸς
yap ἐστιν ἀγαθοῦ καὶ μεγαλοψύχου ἀκούειν μὲν
κακῶς, λέγειν δὲ μὴ κακῶς. ὥσπερ γὰρ τὰ βαλλό-
μενα πρὸς τοὺς στερεοὺς καὶ γενναίους τοίχους
ἐκείνοις μὲν οὐ προσιζάνει, οὐδὲ πλήττει, οὐδὲ
ἐγκάθηται, σφοδρότερον δὲ ἐπὶ τοὺς βάλλοντας
ἀνακλᾶται, οὕτω πᾶσα λοιδορία καὶ βλασφημία
καὶ ὕβρις ἄδικος ἀνδρὸς ἀγαθοῦ καταχυθεῖσα
θιγγάνει μὲν οὐδαμῶς ἐκείνου, τρέπεται δὲ ἐπὶ
τὸν καταχέοντα. ταῦτά σοι παραινῶ, τὰ δὲ ἑξῆς
ἔσται τῆς κρίσεως. ὑπὲρ δὲ τῶν ἐμῶν ἐπιστολῶν
ἅς φησί σε λαβόντα παρ᾽ ἐμοῦ δημοσιεῦσαι,
γελοῖον. εἶναί μοι φαίνεται φέρειν εἰς κρίσιν' οὐθὲν
γὰρ ἐγώ, μὰ τοὺς θεούς, πρός σε πώποτε γέγραφα
οὔτε πρὸς ἄλλον ἄνθρωπον οὐδένα, ὃ ὃ μὴ δημοσίᾳ
τοῖς πᾶσι προκεῖσθαι βούλομαι" τίς γὰρ ἀσέλγεια,
τίς ὕβρις, τίς “προπηλακισμός, τίς λοιδορία, τίς
αἰσχρορρημοσύνη ταῖς ἐμαῖς ἐπιστολαῖς ἐνεγράφη
ποτέ; ὅς γε, καὶ εἰ πρός τινα τραχύτερον εἶχον,"
διδούσης μοι τῆς ὑποθέσεως ὥσπερ ἐξ ἁμάξης
1 Λαυράκιον MS., Λαυρίκιον Geficken, to identify him with
the correspondent ‘of Libanits.
2 Biicheler; MS. εἰ καὶ----ἔχων ; καίπερ----ἔχων Papadopoulos
suggests.
1 Possibly to be identified with Bassidius Laaricius,
governor of the province of Isauria in 359, a Christian
Too
TO HIS UNCLE JULIAN
of Lauricius,' I do not think I need write you any
instructions ; but | give you just this word of advice :
renounce all feeling of anger, trust all to justice,
submitting your ears to his words with complete
confidence in the right. Yet I do not deny that
what he wrote to you was annoying and full of every
kind of insolence and arrogance; but you must put
up with it. For it becomes a good and great-souled
man to make no counter charge when he is maligned.
For, just as missiles that are hurled against hard,
well-built walls, do not settle on them, or penetrate
them, or stay where they strike, but rebound with
increased force against the hand that throws them,
just so every aspersion directed against an upright
man, slander, calumny, or unmerited insolence,
touches him not at all, but recoils on the head of
him who made the aspersion. This is my advice to
you, but the sequel will be for the law to decide,
With regard, however, to the letters which he asserts
you made public after receiving them from me, it
seems to me ridiculous to bring them into court.
For I call the gods to witness, I have never written
to you or any other man a word that I am not willing
to publish for all to see. ‘ Have I ever in my letters
employed brutality or insolence, or abuse or slander,
or said anything for which I need to blush? On the
contrary, even when I have felt resentment against
someone and my subject gave me a chance to use
ribald language like a woman from a cart,” the sort
correspondent of Libanius; Ammianus 19. 13.2; Libanius,
Letter 585, Foerster. The little that we know about Lauricius
gives no clue to what follows.
2 A proverbial reference to the scurrilous language per-
mitted to the women who rode in wagons in the Eleusinian
processions ; cf. Aristophanes, Plutus 1014.
Iol
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
εἰπεῖν, οἷα ψευδῶς ἐπὶ τοῦ Λυκάμβου 1 ᾿Αρχί-
λοχος, σεμνότερον αὐτὰ " καὶ σωφρονέστερον
ἐφθεγξάμην ἤ τις ὃ ἱερὰν ὑπόθεσιν μετῇει. εἰ
δὲ τῆς ὑπαρχούσης ἡμῖν πρὸς ἀλλήλους εὐνοίας
ἔμφασιν εἶχε τὰ γράμματα, τοῦτο ἐγὼ λανθάνειν
ἠβουλόμην ἢ ἢ ἀποκρύπτεσθαι ; * διὰ τί; μάρτυρας
ἔχω τοὺς θεοὺς πάντας τε καὶ πάσας, ὅτι, καὶ
ὅσα μοι πρὸς τὴν γαμετήν, οὐκ ἄν ἠχθέσθην, εἴ τις
ἐδημοσίευσεν' οὕτως ἢ ἣν πάντα σωφροσύνης πλήρη.
εἰ δέ, ἃ ἃ πρὸς τὸν ἐμαυτοῦ θεῖον ἐπέστειλα, ταῦτα
καὶ ἄλλος τίς ἀνέγνω. καὶ δεύτερος, ὁ «πικρῶς
οὕτως ave vevoas αὐτὰ δικαιοτέραν ἄν ὑπόσχοι
μέμψιν ἢ ὁ γράψας ἐγὼ ἢ σὺ ἢ καὶ ἄλλος ἀνα-
γνούς. “πλὴν ἀλλὰ τοῦτο συγχώρει καὶ μὴ
ταραττέτω σε, σκόπει δὲ ἐκεῖνο μόνον" πονηρὸς
ἐστι Λαυρίκιος, “ὑπέξελθε γενναίως αὐτόν. εἰ δὲ
ἐπιεικὴς καὶ μέτριός ἐστι, καὶ ἥμαρτε περὶ σέ,
δὸς αὐτῷ συγγνώμην" τοὺς γὰρ ἀγαθοὺς δημοσίᾳ,
Kav ἰδίᾳ “περὶ ἡμᾶς οὐ καθήκοντες γένωνται,
φιλεῖν χρή. τοὺς πονηροὺς δὲ ἐ ἐν τοῖς κοινοῖς, κἂν
ἡμῖν κεχαρισμένοι διὰ χειρὸς ἔχειν, οὐ μισεῖν οὐδὲ
ἐκτρέπεσθαί φημι, φυλακὴν δὲ προβεβλῆσθαί °
τίνα, ὅπως μὴ λήσωσι κακουργοῦντες, εἰ δὲ
δυσφύλακτοι λίαν εἶεν, χρῆσθαι πρὸς μηδὲν αὐτοῖς.
ὑπὲρ οὗ γέγραφας καὶ αὐτός, ὅτι θρυνούμενος ἐπὶ
πονηρίᾳ τὴν ἰατρικὴν ὑποκρίνεται, ἐκλήθη μὲν
παρ᾽ ἡμῶν ὡς σπουδαῖος, πρὶν δὲ εἰς ὄψιν ἐλθεῖν
1 ’ Weil, MS. Λαυδακίδον.
2 Bidez, MS. αὐτόν.
! ’ Bidez, ἤ τις Weil, ὡς εἴτις Papadopoulos, . . εἴτις MS.
; Weil adds ; Papadgpoulos inserts μὴ before λανθάνειν.
δ 1 Biche MS. προβέβλησό.
ΙΟ2
TO HIS UNCLE JULIAN
of libels that Archilochus launched against Lycambes,!
I have always expressed myself with more dignity
and reserve than one observes even on a sacred sub-
ject. And if my letters did give emphatic proof of
the kindly feeling that you and I have towards one
another, did I wish this to be unknown or concealed ?
For what purpose? I call all the gods and goddesses
to witness that I should not have resented it, even if
someone had published abroad all that I ever wrote
to my wife, so temperate was it in every respect.
And if this or that person has read what I wrote to
my own uncle, it would be fairer to blame the man who
ferreted it out with such malevolence, rather than
me, the writer, or you, or any other who read it.
Nevertheless, concede this to me, do not let it disturb
your peace of mind, only look at the matter thus—if
Lauricius is really dishonest get rid of him in a dig-
nified way. But if he is a well-meaning person of
average honesty, and has treated you badly, forgive
him. For-when men are honest in public life we
must be on good terms with them, even though they
do not behave properly to us in their private capacity.
On the other hand, when men are dishonest in public
affairs, even though they have won our favour, we
must keep them under control; I do not mean that
we must hate or avoid them, but keep careful watch
on them, so that we may not fail to detect them
when they misbehave, though if they are too hard to
control in this way, we must not employ them at all.
_ As for what you, as well as others, have written, that
though notorious for bad conduct he masquerades as
a physician, I did send for him, thinking that he was
trustworthy, but before he had an interview with me
1 Cf. Horace, Epode 6. 13.
103
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
φωραθεὶς ὅστις ἦν, μᾶλλον δὲ καταμηνυθείς" τὸ
δὲ ὑπὸ τίνος αὐτὸς ἐντυχὼν φράσω σοι" κατεφρο-
νήθη" σοὶ δὲ καὶ ὑπὲρ τούτου χάριν οἶδα.
Τῶν αἰτηθέντων ἀ ἀγρῶν ἐπειδήπερ ἔφθην ἐ ἐκείνους
δεδωκώς" εἰσί δέ μοι μάρτυρες ὁμόγνιοι καὶ φίλιοι ἴ
θεοί: δώσω μακρῷ λυσιτελεστέρους, αἰσθήσῃ δὲ
καὶ αὐτός.
90
Ἰουλιανὸς Φιλίππῳ 3
Ἦ, \ \ \ θ \ » a x 5 / ,
y@ vn τοὺς θεοὺς e€TL καίσαρ ὧν ἐπέστειλα
σοι, καὶ νομίξω πλέον ἢ ἅπαξ. ὥρμησα μέντοι
πολλάκις, ἀλλ᾽ ἐκώλυσαν ἄλλοτε ἄλλαι προφά-
σεις, εἶτα ἡ γενομένη διὰ τὴν ἀνάρρησιν ἐμοί τε
καὶ τῷ μακαρίτῃ Κωνσταντίῳ λυκοφιλία" παντά-
πᾶσι γὰρ ἐφυλαττόμην t ὑπὲρ τὰς "Adres ἐπιστεῖ-
λαί τινι, μὴ πραγμάτων αὐτῷ χαλεπῶν αἴτιος
γένωμαι. τεκμήριον δέ μοι 8 ποιοῦ τῆς εὐνοίας
τὸ μὴ γράφειν" οὐ γὰρ ἐθέλει πολλάκις ὁμολογεῖν
ἡ γλῶττα τῇ διανοίᾳ. καὶ ἴσως ἔχει μέν τι πρὸς
τὸ γαυριᾶν καὶ ἀλαζονεύεσθαι τοῖς ἰδιώταις. ἡ
τῶν βασιλικῶν ἐπιστολῶν ἐπίδειξις, ὅ ὅταν πρὸς
τοὺς ἀσυνήθεις, ὥσπερ δακτύλιοί τινες ὑπὸ τῶν
ἀπειροκάλων φερόμενοι, κομίζωνται. φιλία δὲ
1 φίλοι MS., φίλιοι Weil. 2 Hertlein 68.
3 μοι ποιοῦ, τοῦτο---γράφειν MSS.; μὴ---γράφειν Reiske, Hert-
lein ; μοι---μὴ γράφειν Cobet.
1 Schwarz wrongly suspects this letter on stylistic grounds.
Philip was perhaps the Cappadocian to whom Libanius wrote
several extant letters, e.g. Letter 1190. For his zeal in aiding
104
TO PHILIP
his true character was detected, or rather he was
denounced to me—when I meet you I will tell you
by whom—and he was treated with contempt. For
this too I have to thank you.
Instead of the estates that you asked for, since I
have already given those away—lI call to witness the
gods of our family and of friendship—I will give
you some that pay far better, as you shall yourself
discover.
30
To Philip’
I catt the gods to witness that, when I was still
Caesar I wrote to you, and 1 think it was more than
once. However, I started to do so many times, but
there were reasons that prevented me, now of one
kind, now another, and then followed that wolf’s
friendship that arose between myself and Constantius
of blessed memory, in consequence of the proclama-
tion.? I was exceedingly careful not to write to
anyone beyond the Alps for fear of getting him into
serious trouble. So consider the fact that I did not
write a proof of my goodwill. For it is often impractic-
able to make one’s language harmonise with one’s
real sentiments. Then, too, letters from the Emperor
to private persons might well lead to their display
for bragging and making false pretences when they
come into the hands of persons with no sense of pro-
priety, who carry them about like seal-rings and
show them to the inexperienced. Nay, genuine
Julian to restore paganism he suffered persecution after the
Emperor’s death.
2 2,6. of himself as Augustus by the army in Gaul, early in
360; cf. Vol. 2, Letter to the Athenians 283-286; he was
Caesar 355-360,
105
362
Spring
From
Con-
stanti-
nople
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
ἀληθινὴ γίνεται μάλιστα μὲν ov ὁμοιότητος, ἡ
δευτέρα δέ, ὅ ὅταν τις ἀληθῶς, ἀλλὰ μὴ πλαστῶς
θαυμάξῃ, καὶ παρὰ τοῦ τύχῃ καὶ συνέσει κρείτ-
τονος ὁ πρᾷος καὶ μέτριος καὶ σώφρων ἀγαπηθῇ.
τὰ γραμματεῖα δὲ ταῦτα πολλοῦ τύφου καὶ
πολλῆς φλυαρίας ἐστὶ μεστά, καὶ ἔγωγε πολλάκις
ἐμαυτῷ μέμφομαι μακρότερα ποιούμενος αὐτὰ
καὶ λαλίστερος ὦν, ἐξὸν ἸΤυθαγόρειον διδάσκειν
τὴν γλῶτταν.
“Ὑπεδεξάμην μέντοι τὰ σύμβολα, φιάλην ἀργυ-
ρᾶν, ἕλκουσαν μίαν μνᾶν, καὶ χρυσοῦ νόμισμα.
καλέσαι δέ σε πρὸς ἐμαυτόν, ὥσπερ ἐπέστειλας,
ἐβουλόμην. ἤδη δὲ ἔαρ ὑποφαίνέι καὶ τὰ δένδρα
βλαστάνει, χελιδόνες δὲ ὅσον οὔπω προσδοκώ-
μεναι τοὺς συστρατευομένους ἡμᾶς, ὅταν ἐπεισ-
έλθωσιν, ἐξελαύνουσι τῶν οἰκιῶν, καί φασι δεῖν
ὑπερορίους εἶναι. “πορευσόμεθα δὲ δ ὑμῶν,
ὥστε μοι βέλτιον ἂν ἐντύχοις, ἐθελόντων θεῶν,
ἐν τοῖς σαυτοῦ. τοῦτο δὲ οἶμαι ταχέως ἔσεσθαι,
πλὴν εἰ μή τι δαιμόνιον γένοιτο κώλυμα. καὶ
τοῦτο δὲ αὐτὸ τοῖς θεοῖς εὐχόμεθα.
91
᾽ a , \ na > lal xf
Ἰουλιανοῦ νόμος περὶ τῶν ἰατρῶν.
Τὴν ἰατρικὴν ἐπιστήμην σωτηριώδη τοῖς
ἀνθρώποις τυγχάνειν τὸ ἐναργὲς τῆς χρείας
1 Hertlein 20 ἢ. In the MSS. this document has no
title; it was placed by Hertlein after Letter 25 in his
edition,
1 Such tokens were often sent tofriends; cf. Zo Hecebolius,
p. 219.
106
A DECREE CONCERNING PHYSICIANS
friendship is produced first and foremost by similarity
of disposition, but a second kind is, when one feels
true and not pretended admiration, and a humane,
moderate and virtuous man is cherished by one who
is his superior in fortune and intelligence. Moreover
letters of this sort are full of conceit and nonsense,
and, for my part, I often blame myself for making
mine too long, and for being too loquacious when I
might discipline my tongue to Pythagorean silence.
Yes, I received the tokens, namely, a silver bowl
weighing one mina and a gold coin.t I should be
very glad to invite you to visit me as you suggest
in your letter. But the first signs of spring are here
already, the trees are in bud, and the swallows, which
are expected almost immediately, as soon as they
come drive our band of campaigners out of doors,
and remind us that we ought to be over the border.
We shall travel through your part of the country,?
so that you would have a better chance of seeing
me, if the gods so will it, in yourown home. ‘This
will, I think, be soon, unless some sign from heaven
should forbid it. For this same meeting I am
praying to the gods.
31
A decree concerning Physicians®
Tuat the science of medicine is salutary for man-
kind is plainly testified by experience. Hence the
* Julian set out for Antioch about May 12th, 362, and ex-
pected to see Philip in Cappadocia.
8 This edict, preserved more briefly in Codex Theodosianus
13. 3. 4, was Julian’s Jast known legislative act before he left
Constantinople. It confirmed the immunity granted to phy-
sicians by Constantine, and was probably meant to apply
only to the heads of the medical faculties, archiatri, since
the Latin edict is addressed to them,
107
362
May
12th
From
Con-
stanti-
nople
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
μαρτυρεῖ. διὸ καὶ ταύτην ἐξ οὐρανοῦ πεφοιτη-
κέναι δικαίως φιλοσόφων παῖδες κηρύττουσι.
τὸ γὰρ ἀσθενὲς τῆς ἡμετέρας φύσεως καὶ τὰ
τῶν ἐπισυμβαινόντων ἀρρωστημάτων ἐπανορ-
θοῦται διὰ ταύτης. ὅθεν κατὰ τὸν τοῦ δικαίου
λογισμὸν συνῳδὰ τοῖς ἄνωθεν βασιλεῦσι θεσπί-
ἕοντες ἡμετέρᾳ φιλανθρωπίᾳ κελεύομεν τῶν
βουλευτικῶν λειτουργημάτων ἀνενοχλήτους ὑμᾶς
τοὺς λοιποὺς χρόνους διάγειν.
92
‘
Θεοδώρᾳ.ἷ
Τὸ βιβλίον, ὅπερ ἀπέστειλας διὰ Μυγδονίου,
δεδέγμεθα, καὶ προσέτι πάντα ὅσα σύμβολα διὰ
τῆς ἑορτῆς ἡμῖν ἐπέμπετο. ἔστι μὲν οὖν μοι καὶ
τούτων ἕκαστον ἡδὺ,3 παντὸς δὲ ἥδιον, εὖ ἴσθι, τὸ
πεπύσθαι με περὶ τῆς σῆς ἀγαθότητος, ὅτι σὺν θεοῖς
ἔρρωταί σοι τὸ σῶμα, καὶ τὰ περὶ τοὺς θεοὺς
ἐπιμελέστερον ἅμα καὶ συντονώτερον σπουδά-
ἕεται παρὰ σοῦ. περὶ δὲ ὧν πρὸς τὸν φιλόσοφον
Μάξιμον ἔγραψας, ὡς τοῦ φίλου μου Σελεύκου
ιαφόρως ἔχοντος πρὸς σέ, πέπεισο μηθὲν αὐτὸν
Tap ἐμοὶ τοιοῦτον πράττειν ἢ λέγειν, ἐξ ὧν ἄν σε
1 Papadopoulos 2* ; not in Hertlein.
2 Weil; MS. ἰδεῖν.
1 For Mygdonius cf. Letter 33, and Libanius, Letlers 471,
518 written in 357.
* Literally ‘‘ tokens,” tesserae, probably the same as the
συνθήματα mentioned by Sozomen 5. 16; they were letters of
recommendation for the use of Christian travellers ; Sozomen
says that Julian wished to establish this custom among the
pagans.
108
TO THE PRIESTESS THEODORA
sons of the philosophers are right in proclaiming that
this science also is descended from heaven. For by
its means the infirmity of our nature and the dis-
orders that attack us are corrected. Therefore, in
accordance with reason and justice, we decree what
is in harmony with the acts of former Emperors, and
of our benevolence ordain that for the future ye may
live free from the burdens attaching to senators.
32
To the priestess Theodora
I nave received through Mygdonius! the books
that you sent me, and besides, all the letters of
recommendation? that you forwarded to me through-
out the festival. Every one of these gives me pleasure,
but you may be sure that more pleasant than anything
else is the news about your excellent self,’ that by
the grace of the gods you are in good physical health,
and are devoting yourself to the service of the gods
more earnestly and energetically. As regards what
you wrote to the philosopher Maximus, that my
friend Seleucus‘ is ill-disposed towards you, believe
me that he neither does nor says in my pres-
ence anything that he could possibly intend as
8 Literally “your Goodness” ; with this use of ἀγαθότης cf.
_ Oribasius, Introduction to his ἰατρικαὶ συναγωγαὶ 1. παρὰ τῆς
σῆς θειότητος, αὐτόκρατορ ᾿Ιουλιανὲ --Ξ- “‘by your god-like self,”
literally ‘‘ your Divinity ” ; see above, p. 3.
4 Of Cilicia. He was an old friend of the Emperor’s and
accompanied him on the Persian campaign. From the letters
of Libanius it seems that Julian had appointed Seleucus to
some high priestly office in 362.
109
Autumn
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
μάλιστα δ. αβάλλοι' τοὐναντίον δὲ πάντα εὔφημα
διεξέρχεται περὶ σοῦ, καὶ οὔπω λέγω τοῦθ' ὅτι
καὶ διάκειται περὶ σὲ καλῶς" ἐκεῖνο μὲν γὰρ αὐτὸς
ἂν εἰδείη καὶ οἱ πάντα ὁρῶντες θεοί" τὸ δὲ ὅτι
πάντων ἀπέχεται τῶν τοιούτων ἐπ᾽ ἐμοῦ, λίαν
ἀληθεύων φημί. γελοῖον οὖν εἶναί μοι φαίνεται,
μὴ τὰ πραττόμενα παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ σκοπεῖν ἀλλὰ
τὰ κρυπτόμενα, καὶ ὧν οὐδέν ἐστί μοι φανερὸν
τεκμήριον ἐξετάζειν. ἐπεὶ δὲ κατέδραμες αὐτοῦ
πολλὰ πάνυ, καὶ mepl αὑτῆς ἐδήλωσάς τινα, τὴν
αἰτίαν μοι τῆς πρὸς αὐτὸν ἀπεχθείας φανερὰν
ποιοῦσα, τοσοῦτον ἐγώ φημι πρὸς σε διαρρήδην,
ὡς, εἴ τινα ἀνδρῶν ἢ γυναικῶν ἢ ἐλευθέρων ἢ
δούλων ἀγαπᾷς οὔτε νῦν σέβοντα θεοὺς οὔτε
ἐν ἐλπίδι τοῦ πείσειν αὐτὸν ἔχουσα, ἁμαρτάνεις.
ἐννόησον γὰρ ὡς ἐπὶ σαυτῆς πρῶτον, εἴ τις οἰκετῶν
τῶν φιλουμένων ὑπὸ σοῦ τοῖς λοιδορουμένοις καὶ
βλασφημοῦσί σε συμπράττοι καὶ θεραπεύοι
πλέον ἐκείνους, ἀποστρέφοιτο δὲ καὶ βδελύττοιτο
τοὺς σοὺς φίλους ἡμᾶς, ap οὐ τοῦτον αὐτίκα
ἂν ἀπολέσθαι ἐθέλοις, μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ αὐτὴ
τιμωρήσαιο; τί οὗν; οἱ θεοὶ τῶν φίλων εἰσὶν
ἀτιμότεροι; λόγισαι καὶ ἐπ᾽ αὐτῶν τοῦτο,
δεσπότας μὲν ἐκείνους ὑπολαβοῦσα, δούλους
δὲ ἡμᾶς. εἴ τις οὖν ἡμῶν, οἵ φαμεν εἶναι θερά-
TOVTES θεῶν, οἰκέτην στέργοι τὸν βδελυττόμενον
αὐτοὺς καὶ ἀποστρεφόμενον αὐτῶν τὴν θρησκείαν,
ap’ οὐ δίκαιον ἢ πείθειν αὐτὸν καὶ σώξειν, ἢ τῆς
οἰκίας ἀποπέμπεσθαι καὶ πιπράσκειν, εἴ τῳ μὴ
1 Weil; MS. ἐθέλεις.
ΓΙῸ
TO THE PRIESTESS THEODORA
slandering. On the contrary, all that he tells me
about you is favourable ; and while I do not go so far
as to say that he actually feels friendly to you—only
he himself and the all-seeing gods can know the
truth as to that—still I can say with perfect sincerity
that he does refrain from any such calumny in my
presence. Therefore it seems absurd to scrutinise
what is thus concealed rather than what he actually
does, and to search for proof of actions of which I
have no shred of evidence. But since you have
made so many accusations against him, and have
plainly revealed to me a definite cause for your own
hostility towards him, I do say this much to you
frankly; if you are showing favour to any person,
man or woman, slave or free, who neither worships
the gods as yet, nor inspires in you any hope that you
may persuade him to do so, you are wrong. For do
but consider first how you would feel about your own
household. Suppose that some slave for whom you
feel affection should conspire with those who slan-
dered and spoke ill of you, and showed deference to
them, but abhorred and detested us who are your
friends, wouid you not wish for his speedy destruc-
tion, or rather would you not punish him yourself? !
Well then, are the gods to be less honoured than our
friends? You must use the same argument with
reference to them, you must consider that they are
our masters and we their slaves. It follows, does it
not, that if one of us who call ourselves servants of
~the gods has a favourite slave who abominates the
gods and turns from their worship, we must in justice
either convert him and keep him, or dismiss him from
the house and sell him, in case some one does not
1 An echo of Plato, Zuthyphro 13p; ef. Vol. 2, 2898.
III
375
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
ῥάδιον ὑπερορᾶν οἰκέτου κτήσεως ; ἐγὼ δὲ οὐκ ἂν
δεξαίμην ὑπὸ τῶν μὴ φιλούντων θεοὺς ἀγα-
πᾶσθαι: ὃ δὴ καὶ σὲ καὶ πάντας φημὶ δεῖν τοὺς
ἱερατικῶν ) ἀντιποιουμένους ἐντεῦθεν ἤδη διανοη-
θέντας ἅψασθαι συντονώτερον τῆς εἰς τοὺς θεοὺς
ἁγιστείας" ἀπὸ τῆς οἰκίας δὲ σεβασμὸν 3 εὔλογον
παρέχεσθαι τῆς ἑαυτοῦ τὸν ἱερέα, καὶ πρώτην
αὐτὴν ὅλην ot ὅλης ἀποφῆναι καθαρὰν τῶν
τηλικούτων νοσημάτων.
99
Θεοδώρᾳ τῇ αἰδεσιμωτάτῃ.
Τὰ πεμφθέντα παρὰ σοῦ βιβλία πάντα
ὑπεδεξάμην καὶ τὰς ἐπιστολὰς ἄσμενος διὰ
τοῦ βελτίστου Μυγδονίου. καὶ μόγις ἄγων
σχολήν, ὡς ἴσασιν οἱ θεοί, οὐκ ἀκκιζόμενος λέγω,"
ταῦτα ἀντέγραψα πρός σε. σὺ δὲ εὖ πράττοις
καὶ γράφοις ἀεὶ τοιαῦτα.
94
᾿Εδεξάμην" ὅσα ἐπέστειλεν ἡ σὴ φρόνησις
ἀγαθὰ καὶ καλὰ παρὰ τῶν θεῶν ἡμῖν ἐπαγ-
γέλματα καὶ δῶρα' καὶ πολλὴν ὁμολογήσας
1 Biicheler, Weil; Papadopoulos ἱερατικῆς (λειτουργία) ;
MS. ἱερατικῶς.
2 Weil; MS. ἕκαστον. 8 Hertlein 5.
* Cobet ; οὐ κακιζομένην λόγω MSS., Hertlein ; οὐκ ἀκκιζο-
μένην Reiske.
δ Papadopoulos 6*, Not in Hertlein,
112
TO THEODORA
find it easy to dispense with owning a slave? For
my part I would not consent to be loved by those
who do not love the gods; wherefore I now say
plainly that you and all who aspire to priestly offices
must bear this in mind, and engage with greater
energy in the temple worship of the gods. And it is
reasonable to expect that a priest should begin with
his own household in showing reverence, and first of
all prove that it is wholly and throughout pure of
such grave distempers.
33
To the most reverend Theodora}
I was glad to receive all the books that you
sent me, and your letters through the. excellent
Mygdonius.?_ And since I have hardly any leisure,—
as the gods know, I speak without affectation,—I
have written you these few lines. And now fare-
well, and may you always write me letters of the
same sort! —
34
To Theodora ? 8
I nave received from you who are wisdom itself
your letter telling me of the fair and blessed
promises and gifts of the gods to us. First I
_ 1 The epithet as well as the preceding letter show that she
was a priestess.
* Mygdonius protected Libanius in Constantinople in 343.
There is nothing to show whether Julian was at Antioch or
Constantinople when he wrote these letters to Theodora.
8’ This unaddressed letter must have been written to a
priestess, who was almost certainly Theodora,
113
VOL, ΠῚ. I
/
362
About,
the
same
date as
Lettez
32
362
375
B
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
χάριν τοῖς οὐρανίοις θεοῖς ἐν δευτέρῳ τῇ σῇ
μεγαλοψυχίᾳ άριν ἔσχον, ὅτι καὶ προσλιπαρεῖν
ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν τοὺς θεοὺς ἐν τοῖς μάλιστα προθυμῇ
καὶ τὰ φανέντα map αὑτῇ ἀγαθὰ διὰ ταχέων
ἡμῖν καταμηνύειν σπουδάζεις.
35
᾿Αριστοξένῳ φιλοσόφῳ.
“Apa γε χρὴ περιμένειν. κλῆσιν, καὶ τὸ ἀκλητὶ
προτιμᾶν μηδαμοῦ ; ἀλλ᾽ ὅρα μὴ χαλεπὴν ταύτην
εἰσαγάγωμεν νομοθεσίαν, εἰ ταὐτὰ χρὴ παρὰ τῶν
φίλων περιμένειν, ὅσα καὶ παρὰ τῶν ἁπλῶς καὶ
ὡς ἔτυχε γνωρίμων. ἀπορήσει τις ἐνταῦθα, πῶς
οὐκ ἰδόντες " ἀλλήλους ἐσμὲν φίλοι; πῶς δὲ τοῖς
πρὸ χιλίων ἐτῶν γεγονόσι καὶ ναὶ μὰ Δία
δισχιλίων ; ὅτι σπουδαῖοι πάντες ἧσαν καὶ τὸν
τρόπον καλοί τε κἀγαθοί. ἐπιθυμοῦμεν δὲ καὶ ἡμεῖς
εἶναι τοιοῦτοι, εἰ καὶ τοῦ εἶναι, τό ye εἰς ἐμέ,
πάμπληθες ἀπολειπόμεθα. πλὴν ἀλλ' ἥ γε ἐπι-
θυμία τάττει πως ἡμᾶς εἰς τὴν αὐτὴν ἐκείνοις
μερίδα. καὶ τί ταῦτα ἐγὼ ληρῶ μακρότερον;
εἴτε γὰρ ἄκλητον ἰέναι χρή, ἥξεις δήπουθεν" εἴτε
καὶ κλῆσιν περιμένεις, ἰδού σοι καὶ παράκλησις
ἥκει παρ᾽ ἡμῶν. ἔντυχε οὖν ἡμῖν περὶ τὰ Τύανα
πρὸς Διὸς φιλίου, καὶ δεῖξον ἡμῖν ἄνδρα ἐν Kar-
1 Hertlein 4.
2 Wyttenbach, Cobet from Parisinus; εἰδότες MSS.,
Hertlein.
114
TO ARISTOXENUS, A PHILOSOPHER
acknowledged the great gratitude that I owed to
the heavenly gods, and in the second place I ren-
dered thanks to your generosity of soul, in that you
are zealous, no one more so, in entreating the gods
on my behalf, and moreover you lose no time but
inform me without delay of the blessings that have
been revealed where you are.
35
To Aristoxenus, a Philosopher!
Must you then really wait for an invitation and never
prefer to come uninvited? Nay, see to it that you
and I do not introduce this tiresome convention
of expecting the same ceremony from our friends
as from mere chance acquaintances. At this point
will somebody or other raise the question how we
come to be friends when we have never seen one
another? I answer: How are we the friends of
those who lived a thousand, or, by Zeus, even two
thousand years ago? It is because they were all
virtuous, of upright and noble character. And we,
likewise, desire to be such as they, even though, to
speak for myself, we completely fail in that aspira-
tion. But, at any rate, this ambition does in some
degree rank us in the same category as_ those
persons. But why do 1 talk at length about these
tries? For if it is right that you should come
without an invitation you will certainly come; if,
-on the other hand, you are really waiting for an
invitation, herewith you have from me an urgent
summons. Therefore meet me at Tyana, in the
name of Zeus the god of friendship, and show me
1 This Hellenised Cappadocian is otherwise unknown.
115
1'2
362
June
On the
way to
Antioch
422
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
: \ \ \
παδόκαις καθαρῶς “Βλληνα. τέως γὰρ τοὺς μὲν
οὐ βουλομένους, ὀλίγους δέ τινας ἐθέλοντας μέν,
οὐκ εἰδότας δὲ θύειν ὁρῶ.
90
Παιδείαν * ὀρθὴν εἶναι νομίζομεν. οὐ τὴν ἐν
τοῖς ῥήμασι καὶ τῇ γλώττῃ πραγματευομένην "
εὐρυθμίαν, ἀλλὰ διάθεσιν ὑγιῆ νοῦν ἐχούσης
διανοίας καὶ ἀληθεῖς δόξας ὑπέρ τε ἀγαθῶν καὶ
κακῶν, ἐσθλῶν τε καὶ αἰσχρῶν. ὅστις οὖν ἕτερα
μὲν φρονεῖ, διδάσκει δὲ ἕ ἕτερα τοὺς πλησιάξοντας,
οὗτος ἀπολελεῖφθαι τοσούτῳ δοκεῖ τῆς παιδείας,
ὅσῳ καὶ τοῦ χρηστὸς ἀνὴρ εἶναι. καὶ εἰ μὲν ἐπὶ
σμικροῖς εἴη τὸ διάφορον τῆς γνώμης πρὸς τὴν
γλῶτταν, κακὸν μὲν οἰστὸν δὲ ὅμως ὁπωσοῦν
γίνεται" εἰ δὲ ἐ ἐν τοῖς μεγίστοις ἄλλα μὲν φρονοίη
τις, ἐπ᾽ ἐναντίον δὲ ὧν φρονεῖ διδάσκοι, πῶς οὐ
τοῦτο ἐκεῖνο καπήλων ἐστίν, οὔτι χρηστῶν, ἀλλὰ
παμπονήρων ἀνθρώπων, οἱ μάλιστα ὃ ἐπαινοῦσιν *
ὅσα μάλιστα φαῦλα νομίζουσιν, ἐξαπατῶντες καὶ
δελεάζοντες τοῖς ἐπαίνοις εἰς ods μετατιθέναι τὰ
σφέτερα ἐθέλουσιν, οἶμαι, κακά. πάντας μὲν οὖν
χρὴ τοὺς καὶ ὁτιοῦν διδάσκειν ἐπαγγελλομένους
εἶναι τὸν τρόπον ἐπιεικεῖς καὶ μὴ μαχόμενα οἷς
1 Hertlein 42. Suidas quotes the first three sentences.
2 πραγματευομένην Asmus ; πολιτευομένην Suidas, Hertlein ;
πολυτελῆ MSS. (‘‘ expensive”) may be defended.
3 μάλιστα Klimek would delete.
4 ἐπαινοῦσιν Naber because of ἐπαίνοις below; παιδεύουσιν
Hertlein, MSS. ° © διατίθεσθαι Ὁ Hertlein.
116
i I Φ ὰ
RESCRIPT ON CHRISTIAN TEACHERS
a genuine Hellene among the Cappadocians.t For
I observe that, as yet, some refuse to sacrifice, and
that, though some few are zealous, they lack
knowledge.
36
Rescript on Christian Teachers 3
I ποῖ that a proper education results, not in
laboriously acquired symmetry of phrases and langu-
age, but in a healthy condition of mind, I mean a
mind that has understanding and true opinions about
things good and evil, honourable and base. There-
fore, when a man thinks one thing and teaches his
pupils another, in my opinion he “fails to educate
exactly in proportion as he fails to be an honest man.
And if the divergence between a man’s convictions
and his utterances is merely in trivial matters, that
can be tolerated somehow, though it is wrong. But
‘if in matters of the greatest importance a man has
certain opinions and teaches the contrary, what is
that but the conduct of hucksters, and not honest
but thoroughly dissolute men in that they praise
most highly the things that they believe to be most
worthless, thus cheating and enticing by their praises
those to whom they desire to transfer their worthless
wares. Now all who profess to teach anything what-
ever ought to be men of upright character, and ought
* The Cappadocians were, for the most part, Christians ;
Julian visited Tyana in June on his way to Antioch.
2 For this law see Introduction; Zonaras 13. 12; Sozo-
men 5. 18; Socrates 3. 16.1; Theodoret 8, 8. This version
is, no doubt, incomplete. ,
117
362
After
June
17th
From
Antioch
/
423
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
δημοσίᾳ μεταχειρίξονται τὰ ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ φέρειν
δοξάσματα, πολὺ δὲ πλέον ἁπάντων οἶμαι δεῖν.
εἶναι τοιούτους ὅσοι ἐπὶ λόγοις τοῖς νέοις συγ-
γίγνονται, τῶν παλαιῶν ἐξηγηταὶ γιγνόμενοι
συγγραμμάτων, εἴτε ῥήτορες εἴτε γραμματικοί,
καὶ ἔτι πλέον οἱ σοφισταί. βούλονται γὰρ πρὸς
τοῖς ἄλλοις οὐ λέξεων μόνον, ἠθῶν. δὲ εἶναι διδά-
σκαλοι, καὶ κατὰ σφᾶς εἶναί φασι τὴν πολιτικὴν
φιλοσοφίαν. εἰ μὲν οὖν ἀληθὲς ἢ μή, τοῦτο
ἀφείσθω τὰ 3 νῦν. ἐπαινῶν δὲ αὐτοὺς οὕτως
ἐπαγγελμάτων καλῶν ὀρεγομένους ἐπαινέσαιμ᾽
ἂν ἔτι πλέον, εἰ μὴ ψεύδοιντο μηδ᾽ ἐξελέγχοιεν
αὑτοὺς ἕτερα μὲν φρονοῦντας, διδάσκοντας δὲ
τοὺς πλησιάξοντας ἕτερα. τί οὖν ; Ὁμήρῳ
μέντοι καὶ ἩΗσιόδῳ καὶ Δημοσθένει καὶ Ἡροδότῳ
καὶ Θουκυδίδῃ καὶ ᾿Ισοκράτει καὶ Λυσίᾳ θεοὶ
πάσης ἡγοῦνται παιδείας. οὐχ οἱ μὲν Ἕρμοῦ
σφᾶς ἱερούς, οἱ δὲ Μουσῶν ἐνόμιζον; ἄτοπον μὲν
9 4 5 ie , \ ͵ ? ΄
οὖν οἶμαι τοὺς ἐξηγουμένους τὰ τούτων ἀτιμάζειν.
,
\ £2.95 ag θ θ ΄ > \ > \
Tous ὑπ᾽ αὐτῶν τιμηθέντας θεούς. ov μὴν ἐπειδὴ
τοῦτο ἄτοπον οἶμαι, φημὶ δεῖν αὐτοὺς peTa-
θεμένους τοῖς νέοις συνεῖναι"; δίδωμι δὲ αἵρεσιν
μὴ διδάσκειν ἃ μὴ νομίζουσι σπουδαῖα, βουλο-
μένους δὲ διδάσκειν ἔργῳ πρῶτον πείθειν τοὺς
μαθητὰς ὡς οὔτε Ὅμηρος οὔτε Ἡσίοδος οὔτε
τούτων τις, Os ἐξηγοῦνται καὶ ὧν κατεγνωκότες
1 οἷς---μεταχειρίζονται Bidez; τοῖς δημοσίᾳ. [μεταχαρακτη-
piCovras] Hertlein.
2 καὶ τὸ κατὰ Hertlein MSS; τὸ Asmus deletes.
3 χὰ Asmus adds,
4 μὲν MSS., Hertlein; μέντοι Reiske; μὲν οὖν Hertlein
suggests.
° καὶ after πρῶτον MSS, ; Hertlein would delete,
118
{
γ΄
RESCRIPT ON CHRISTIAN TEACHERS
not to harbour in their souls opinions irreconcilable
with what they publicly profess; and, above all, I
believe it is necessary that those who associate with
the young and teach them rhetoric should be of that
upright character ; for they expound the writings of
the ancients, whether they be rhetoricians or gram-
marians, and still more if they are sophists. For
these claim to teach, in addition to other things, not
only the use of words, but morals also, and they
assert that political philosophy is their peculiar field.
Let us leave aside, for the moment, the question
whether this is true or not. But while I applaud
them for aspiring to such high pretensions, I should
applaud them still more if they did not utter false-
hoods and convict themselves of thinking one thing
and teaching their pupils another. What! Was it
not the gods who revealed all their learning to
Homer, Hesiod, Demosthenes, Herodotus, Thucy-
dides, Isocrates and Lysias?! Did not these men
think that they were consecrated, some to Hermes,?
others to the Muses? I think it is absurd that men
who expound the works of these writers should
dishonour the gods whom they used to honour.
Yet, though I think this absurd, I do not say that
they ought to change their opinions and then instruct
the young. But I give them this choice; either not
to teach what they do not think admirable, or, if
they wish to teach, let them first really persuade
' their pupils that neither Homer nor Hesiod nor
any of these writers whom they expound and have
1 So too in Oration 7. 236-237c. Julian compares the impiety
of the Cynics, who in his opinion had much in common with
the Christians, with Plato’s and Aristotle’s reverence for
religion, 2 Hermes was the god of eloquence,
119.
424
THE. LETTERS OF JULIAN
εἰσὶν ἀσέβειαν ἄνοιάν τε Kal πλάνην εἰς τοὺς
θεούς, τοιοῦτός ἐστιν. ἐπεὶ δ᾽ ἐξ ὧν ἐκεῖνοι
γεγράφασι παρατρέφονται μισθαρνοῦντες, εἶναι
ὁμολογοῦσιν αἰσχροκερδέστατοι καὶ δραχμῶν
ὀλίγων ἕνεκα πάντα ὑπομένειν. ἕως μὲν οὖν
τούτου πολλὰ ἣν τὰ αἴτια τοῦ μὴ φοιτᾶν εἰς τὰ
ἱερά, καὶ ὁ πανταχόθεν ἐπικρεμάμενος φόβος
ἐδίδουν συγγνώμην ἀποκρύπτεσθαι τὰς ἀλη-
θεστάτας ὑπὲρ τῶν θεῶν δόξας" ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἡμῖν
οἱ θεοὶ τὴν ἐλευθερίαν ἔδοσαν, ἄτοπον εἶναί μοι
φαίνεται διδάσκειν ἐκεῖνα τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, ὅσα
μὴ νομίζουσιν εὖ ἔχειν. GAN εἰ μὲν οἴονται
σοφοὺς ὧν εἰσιν ἐξηγηταὶ καὶ ὧν ὥσπερ προφῆται
κάθηνται, ζηλούντων αὐτῶν πρῶτοι τὴν εἰς
τοὺς θεοὺς εὐσέβειαν" εἰ δε εἰς τοὺς τιμιωτάτους
ὑπολαμβάνουσι πεπλανῆσθαι, βαδιζόντων εἰς
τὰς τῶν Ταλιλαίων ἐκκλησίας ἐξηγησόμενοι
Ματθαῖον καὶ Λουκᾶν, οἷς πεισθέντες ἱερείων
ὑμεῖς ἀπέχεσθαι νομοθετεῖτε. ᾿ βούλομαι ὑμῶν
ἐγὼ καὶ τὰς ἀκοἂς ἐξαναγεννηθῆναι," ὡς ἂν ὑμεῖς
εἴποιτε, καὶ τὴν γλῶτταν τούτων, ὧν ἔμοιγε εἴη
μετέχειν ἀεὶ καὶ ὅστις ἐμοὶ φίλα νοεῖ τε καὶ
πράττει. τοῖς μὲν καθηγεμόσι καὶ διδασκάλοις
οὑτωσὶ κοινὸς κεῖται νόμος" ὁ βουλόμενος δὲ
τῶν νέων φοιτᾶν οὐκ ἀποκέκλεισται. οὐδὲ γὰρ
οὐδὲ εὔλογον ἀγνοοῦντας ἔτι τοὺς παῖδας, ἐφ᾽ 6
1 πρῶτοι Hertlein suggests for πρῶτον MSS.
2 ἐξαναγεννηθῆναι follows γλῶτταν in MSS. Hertlein; trans-
posed by Cobet as a peculiarly Christian word.
4 i.e. under the Christian Emperors Constantine and
Constantius it was dangerous to worship the gods openly.
* i.e. the beliefs of the poets about the gods,
' 120
RESCRIPT ON CHRISTIAN TEACHERS
_ declared to be guilty of impiety, folly and error in
regard tothe gods, is such as they declare. For since
they make a livelihood and receive pay from the
works of those writers, they thereby confess that
they are most shamefully greedy of gain, and that,
-for the sake of a few drachmae, they would put up
with anything. It is true that, until now, there were
many excuses for not attending the temples, and the
terror that threatened on all sides absolved men for ©
concealing the truest beliefs about the gods. But
since the gods have granted us liberty, it seems to
me absurd that men should teach what they do not
believe to be sound. But if they believe that those
whose interpreters they are and for whom they sit,
so to speak, in the seat of the prophets, were wise
men, let them be the first to emulate their piety
towards the gods. If, however, they think that
those writers were in error with respect to the most
honoured gods, then let them betake themselves to
the churches of the Galilaeans to expound Matthew
and Luke, since you Galilaeans are obeying them
when you ordain that men shall refrain from temple-
worship. For my part, I wish that your ears and
your tongues might be “born anew,” as you would
say, as regards these things? in which may I ever
have part, and all who think and act as is pleasing
to me.
For religious * and secular teachers let there be a
general ordinance to this effect: Any youth who
wishes to attend the schools is not excluded; nor
indeed would it be reasonable to shut out from the
best way 4 boys who are still too ignorant to know
3 Καθηγεμὼν in Julian has this implication ; οἵ. 70 Theodorus,
p. 55. 4 Cf. To the Alexandrians, p. 149.
121
376 C
411 C
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
: / n U > / e χε.
τι τρέπωνται, τῆς βελτίστης ἀποκλείειν ὁδοῦ,
Ul \
φόβῳ δὲ Kai ἄκοντας ἄγειν ἐπὶ τὰ πάτρια.
/ / \ /
καίτοι δίκαιον ἦν, ὥσπερ τοὺς φρενιτίζοντας,
A \ / ” In \ > \
οὕτω Kal τούτους ἄκοντας ἰᾶσθαι, πλὴν ἀλλὰ
συγγνώμην ὑπάρχειν ἅπασι τῆς τοιαύτης νόσου.
καὶ γὰρ, οἶμαι, διδάσκειν, ἀλλ᾽ οὐχὶ κολάζειν χρὴ
τοὺς ἀνοήτους. .
37
,
᾿Αταρβίῳ 1
᾿Εγὼ μὰ τοὺς θεοὺς οὔτε κτείνεσθαι τοὺς Γαλι-
λαίους οὔτε τύπτεσθαι παρὰ τὸ δίκαιον οὔτε ἄλλο
TL πάσχειν κακὸν βούλομαι, προτιμᾶσθαι μέντοι
τοὺς θεοσεβεῖς καὶ πάνυ φημὶ δεῖν" διὰ μὲν γὰρ
τὴν Γαλιλαίων μωρίαν ὀλίγου δεῖν ἅπαντα ἀνε-
τράπη, διὰ δὲ τὴν τῶν θεῶν εὐμένειαν σωξόμεθα
πάντες. ὅθεν χρὴ τεμᾶν τοὺς θεοὺς καὶ τοὺς
θεοσεβεῖς ἄνδρας τε καὶ πόλεις.
38
᾿Ιουλιανοῦ τοῦ παραβάτου πρὸς ἸΤορφύριον 3
Πολλή τις ἣν πάνυ καὶ μεγάλη βιβλιοθήκη
Γεωργίου παντοδαπῶν μὲν φιλοσόφων, πολλῶν
1 Hertlein 7. According to Cumont, ἰδιόγοαφον should be
added to the title, and this was one of the few letters that
Julian wrote with his own hand.
2 Hertlein 36. This is the title in Suidas, from whose
Lexicon the letter was copied into the MSS. καθολικόν,
** revenue official” is added in Suidas, but is almost certainly
an error. Hertlein’s title Ἰουλιανὸς αὐτοκράτωρ Πορφυρίῳ
χαίρειν is derived from /'arisinus 2131; Hertlein deleted
Γεωργίῳ before Πορφυρίῳ.
1 For Christianity a disease cf. To Libanius, p. 207; for
122 ;
TO ATARBIUS
which way to turn, and to overawe them into being
led against their will to the beliefs of their ancestors.
Though indeed it might be proper to cure these,
even against their will, as one cures the insane,
except that we concede indulgence to all for this
sort of disease.! For we ought, I think, to teach,
but not punish, the demented.
37
To Atarbius 2
I arrinm by the gods that I do not wish the
Galilaeans to be either put to death or unjustly
beaten, or to suffer any other injury; but never-
theless I do assert absolutely that the god-fearing
must be preferred to them. For through the folly
of the Galilaeans almost everything has been over-
turned, whereas through the grace of the gods are
we all preserved. Wherefore we ought to honour
the gods and the god-fearing, both men and cities.®
38
Julian the Apostate to Porphyrius 4
Tue library of George was very large and complete
and contained philosophers of every school and many
indulgence to be shown to persons so atfllicted, cf. 70 the
Citizens of Bostra 4388, p. 135.
2 This is probably Atarbius (so spelled in the Letters of
Libanius) a native of Ancyra and at this time administra-
tor of the district of the Euphrates. In 364 he held high
‘office in Macedonia.
3 For other letters on the same subject cf. 70 the Citizens of
Byzacium, p. 125, and To Hecebolius, p. 127.
4 Perhaps this is George’s secretary mentioned in the Letler
to Ecdicius, p. 73. Geffcken thinks this letter was a Christian
forgery because it seems to ignore the earlier order to Eedicius.
Probably the books had not arrived, and Julian became
impatient.
123
or
Antioch
362
After
the
middle
of July
From
Antioch
380 D
381
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
δὲ ὑπομνηματογράφων, οὐκ ἐλάχιστα δ᾽ ἐν αὐτοῖς
καὶ τὰ τῶν Γαλιλαίων πολλὰ καὶ παντοδαπὰ
βιβλία. πᾶσαν οὖν ἀθρόως ταύτην τὴν βιβλιο-
θήκην ἀναζητήσας φρόντισον εἰς ᾿Αντιόχειαν
ἀποστεῖλαι, γινώσκων ὅτι μεγίστῃ δὴ καὶ αὐτὸς
περιβληθήσῃ ζημίᾳ, εἰ μὴ μετὰ πάσης ἐπιμελείας
ἀνιχνεύσειας, καὶ τοὺς ὁπωσοῦν ὑπονοίας ἔχοντας
ὑφηρῆσθαι τῶν “βιβλίων πᾶσι μὲν ἐλέγχοις,
παντοδαποῖς δὲ ὅρκοις, πλείονι δὲ τῶν οἰκετῶν
βασάνῳ, πείθειν εἰ μὴ δύναιο, καταναγκάσειας εἰς
:
μέσον πάντα προκομίσαι. Eppwao.
99
- Βυζακίοις 1
Τοὺς βουλευτὰς πάντας ὑμῖν ἀποδεδώκαμεν καὶ
A / 9 » a na , e
τοὺς πατροβούλους," εἴτε TH TOV L'adtAaiwv ἑαυ-
τοὺς ἔδοσαν δεισιδαιμονίᾳ, εἴτε πως ἄλλως πραγ-
ματεύσαιντο διαδρᾶναι τὸ βουλευτήριον, ἔξω τῶν
ἐν τῇ μητροπόλει λελειτουργηκότων.
1 Hertlein 11. Βυζαντίνοις MSS., Hertlein ; Βισανθηνοῖς
Gibbon. For the Byzacians see Codex Theodosianus 12.1. 59.
2 πατροβόλους Parisinus; πατροβούλους X, Ducange; πατροκό-
λους edd. ; προβούλους Cobet. See Cumont, Revue de Philologie,
1902.
1 Cumont thinks that a scribe added this inappropriate
greeting.
2 Byzacium was in the district of Tunis. This is Cumont’s
conjecture for MS. title Τοῖς Βυζαντίνοις, To the Byzantines.
Julian never calls Constantinople Byzantium. Gibbon sus-
pected the title and conjectured that it was addressed to the
town Bisanthe (Redosto) in Thrace.
3. The meaning of this word is not clear; Cumont translates
124
TO THE CITIZENS OF BYZACIUM
historians, especially, among these, numerous books of
all kinds by the Galilaeans. Do you therefore make
a thorough search for the whole library without
exception and take care to send it to Antioch. You
may be sure that you will yourself incur the severest
_ penalty if you do not trace it with all diligence, and
do not by every kind of enquiry, by every kind of
sworn testimony and, further, by torture of the slaves,
compel, if you cannot persuade, those who are in any
way suspected of having stolen any of the books to
bring them all forth. Farewell.
39
To the citizens of Byzaciyn 2
I wave restored to you all your senators and
councillors? whether they have abandoned them-
selves to the superstition of the Galilaeans or have
devised some other method of escaping from the
senate,4and have excepted only those who have filled
public offices in the capital.
*‘patroni’”’ i.e. protectors, but we cannot be certain as to the
functions of these local dignitaries in Africa.
4 On the burden of being a Senator cf. Libanius, Oration 2;
Ammianus 21]. 12, 23; Julian, Misopogon 367p. It was one
of Julian’s most widespread reforms to enrol all wealthy
men in the senates of their cities. By an edict of March 362
he deprived the Christian clerics of their immunities from
such public offices which had been conferred on them by
Constantine (cf. Sozomen 5. 5) and in the present case his
edict is directed mainly against those who had become
clerics in order to escape municipal service. Philostorgius
7. 4 says that this was part of Julian’s malignant policy.
The Emperor Valentinian restored their privileges to the
clerics in 364.
125
362»
Prub-
ably
from
Antioch
424 C
D
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
40
“Εκηβολίῳ 1
᾿Εγὼ μὲν κέχρημαι τοῖς Γαλιλαίοις ἅπασιν οὕτω
πράως καὶ φιλανθρώπως, ὥστε μηδένα μηδαμοῦ
βίαν ὑπομένειν μηδὲ εἰς ἱερὸν ἕλκεσθαι μηδ᾽ εἰς
ἄλλο τι τοιοῦτον ἐπηρεάζεσθαι παρὰ τὴν οἰκείαν
πρόθεσιν. οἱ δὲ τῆς ᾿Αρειανικῆς ἐκκλησίας ὑπὸ
τοῦ πλούτου τρυφῶντες ἐπεχείρησαν τοῖς ἀπὸ
τοῦ Οὐαλεντίνου καὶ τετολμήκασι τοιαῦτα κατὰ
τὴν "᾿ἔδεσσαν, οἷα οὐδέποτε ἐν εὐνομουμένῃ πόλει
γένοιτ᾽ ἄν. οὐκοῦν ἐπειδὴ αὐτοῖς ὑπὸ τοῦ θαυμα-
σιωτάτου νόμου προείρηται πωλῆσαι τὰ ὑπάρ-
χοντα καὶ δοῦναι πτωχοῖς 3 ἵν᾿ εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν
τῶν οὐρανῶν εὐκοπώτερον ὃ πορευθῶσι, πρὸς τοῦτο
συναγωνιζόμενοι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις αὐτῶν τὰ χρή-
ματα τῆς ᾿Εδεσσηνῶν ἐκκλησίας ἅπαντα ἐκελεύ-
σαμεν ἀναληφθῆναι δοθησόμενα τοῖς στρατιώταις,
καὶ τὰ κτήματα τοῖς ἡμετέροις προστεθῆναι πρι-
βώτοις, ἵνα πενόμενοι σωφρονῶσι καὶ μὴ στερη-
θῶσιν ἧς ἔτι ἐλπίζουσιν οὐρανίου βασιλείας. τοῖς
1 Hertlein 43.
* πωλῆσαι---πτωχοῖς Asmus supplies from Luke 12. 33 for
lacuna in MSS.; Thomas suggests τὰ ὑπάρχοντα ἀφιέναι
Matthew 19. 27. Hertlein suggests πένεσθαι *‘to embrace
poverty.”
5 Asmus suggests, from Matthew 19. 24; εὐοδώτερον Hertlein,
MSS.
1 This can hardly be the sophist to whom Julian
addressed one of his most flowery and sophistic letters, for
which see p. 217. Probably he was some leading official of
Edessa, the capital of Osroene in Northern Mesopotamia.
Constantius had favoured the Arians there and encouraged
their fanatical sectarianism by handing over to them the great
126
TO HECEBOLIUS
40
To Hecebolius 1
I nave behaved to all the Galilaeans with such
kindness and benevolence that none of them has
suffered violence anywhere or been dragged into a
temple or threatened into anything else of the sort
against his own will. But the followers of the Arian
church, in the insolence bred by their wealth, have
attacked the followers of Valentine 2 and have com-
mitted in Edessa such rash acts as could never occur
ina well-ordered city. Therefore, since by their most
admirable law they are bidden to sell all they have
and give to the poor that, so they may attain more
easily to the kingdom of She Skies, in order to aid
those persons in that effort, I have ordered that all
their funds, namely, that belong to the church of
the people of Edessa, are to be taken over that they
may be given to the soldiers, and that its property ὃ
be confiscated to my private purse.* This is in order
that poverty may teach them to behave properly and
that they may not be deprived of that heavenly
kingdom for which they still hope. And I publicly
basilica of St. Thomas. Sozomen 6. 1, says that on his way
to Persia Julian hurried past Edessa because the city re-
mained obstinately Christian ; later he relates, 6. 18, that
the Emperor Valens visited Edessa and persecuted the non-
Arian Christians ; cf. Socrates 4. 18.
2 Valentine founded one of the sects of the Gnostics in the
first century A.D. ; by the fourth century the Valentinian
- heresy had very few adherents.
3 Probably Julian means the valuables such as Church
plate belonging to the various churches in Edessa; for his
spoliation of the churches cf. Gregory Nazianzen, Against
Julian 3. 86D, and Sozomen 5. 5.
4 mpiBatois=privatis ; or ‘to lay uses,”
127
End of
362 or
early
in 363
From
Antioch
436
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
οἰκοῦσι δὲ τὴν" ἔδεσσαν προαγορεύομεν ἀπέχεσθαι
πάσης στάσεως καὶ φιλονεικίας, ἵνα μή, τὴν ἡμετέ-
ραν φιλανθρωπίαν κινήσαντες, καθ᾽ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν
ὑπὲρ τῆς τῶν κοινῶν ἀταξίας 1 δίκην τίσητε, ξίφει
καὶ φυγῇ καὶ πυρὶ ζημιωθέντες.
41
Βοστρηνοῖς *
"Oipny ἐγὼ τοὺς τῶν Γαλιλαίων προστάτας
ἕξειν μοι μείξονα χάριν ἢ τῷ φθάσαντι πρὸ ἐμοῦ
τὴν ἀρχὴν. ἐπιτροπεῦσαι. συνέβη γὰρ ἐπὶ μὲν
ἐκείνου τοὺς πολλοὺς αὐτῶν καὶ φυγαδευθῆναι
καὶ διωχθῆναι καὶ δεσμευθῆναι, πολλὰ δὲ ἤδη καὶ
σφαγῆναι πλήθη τῶν λεγομένων αἱρετικῶν, ὡς ἐν
aoc ars καὶ Κυζίκῳ καὶ Παφλαγονίᾳ καὶ
Βιθυνίᾳ καὶ Tanrarig, καὶ év® πολλοῖς ἄλλοις
ἔθνεσιν ἄρδην ἀνατραπῆναι “πορθηθείσας κώμας,"
ἐπ᾽ ἐμοῦ δὲ τοὐναντίον. οἵ τε γὰρ ἐξορισθέντες
ἀφείθησαν, καὶ οἱ δημευθέντες ἀπολαμβάνειν ὃ
τὰ σφέτερα ἅπαντα νόμῳ παρ᾽ ἡμῶν ἔλαβον. οἱ
δ᾽ εἰς τοσοῦτον λυσσομανίας ἥκουσι καὶ ἀπονοίας,
ὥστε, ὅτι μὴ τυραννεῖν ἔξεστιν. αὐτοῖς μηδὲ ἅ
ποτε ἔπραττον κατ᾽ ἀλλήλων, ἔπειτα καὶ ἡμᾶς
τοὺς θεοσεβεῖς εἰργάζοντο, διατιθέναι, παροξυνό-
1 Hertlein suggests εὐταξίας or ὑπὲρ τῶν κοινῶν τῆς
ἀταξίας.
2"Hertlein ὅῶ. The only MS. that contains this edict is
Parisinus 2964.
35. Hertlein adds.
4 For κώμας Cobet suggests ἐκκλησίας.
᾽ 5 Hertlein would delete ἀπολαμβάνειν and read ἀπέλαβον for
ἔλαβον.
128
TO THE CITIZENS OF BOSTRA
command you citizens of Edessa to abstain from all
feuds and rivalries, else will you provoke even my
benevolence against yourselves, and being sentenced
to the sword and to exile and to fire pay the penalty
for disturbing the good order of the commonwealth.
41
To the citizens of Bostra 1
I tuovenut that the leaders of the Galilaeans
would be more grateful to me than to my pre-
decessor in the administration of the Empire. For
in his reign it happened to the majority of them to
be sent into exile, prosecuted, and cast into prison,
and moreover, many whole communities of those who
are called “ heretics” 2 were actually butchered, as at
Samosata and Cyzicus, in Paphlagonia, Bithynia, and
Galatia, and among many other tribes also villages
were sacked and completely devastated ; whereas,
during my reign, the contrary has happened. For
those who had been exiled have had their exile
remitted, and those whose property was confiscated
have, by a law of mine received permission to
recover all their possessions.? Yet they have reached
such a pitch of raving madness and folly that they
are exasperated because they are not allowed to
behave like tyrants or to persist in the conduct in
which they at one time indulged against one another,
and afterwards carried on towards us who revered
1 This edict is cited by Sozomen 5.15. Bostra, or Bosra.
was one of the largest fortified cities in Arabia and is described
by Ammianus 14. 8. 13 as murorum firmitate cautissima,
2 Constantius persecuted Christians who did not belong to
the Arian sect. 3 For this see Sozomen 5. 5.
129
VOL, III. K
362
August
Ist
From
Antioch
437
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN :
μενοι πάντα κινοῦσι, λίθον καὶ συνταράττειν TON
μῶσι τὰ πλήθη καὶ στασιάζειν, ἀσεβοῦντες μὲν
εἰς τοὺς θεούς, ἀπειθοῦντες δὲ τοῖς ἡμετέροις
προστάγμασι, καίπερ οὕτως οὖσι φιλανθρώποις.
οὐδένα γοῦν αὐτῶν ἄκοντα πρὸς βωμοὺς ἐῶμεν
ἕλκεσθαι, διαρρήδην δὲ αὐτοῖς προαγορεύομεν, εἴ
τις ἑκὼν χερνίβων καὶ σπονδῶν ἡ ἡμῖν ἐθέλει κοινω-
νεῖν, καθάρσια προσφέρεσθαι πρῶτον καὶ τοὺς
ἀποτροπαίους ἱκετεύειν θεούς. οὕτω πόρρω τυγ-
χάνομεν τοῦ Twa τῶν δυσσεβῶν ἐθελῆσαί ποτε
ἢ διανοηθῆναι τῶν παρ᾽ ἡμῖν εὐαγῶν μετασχεῖν
θυσιῶν, πρὶν τὴν μὲν ψυχὴν ταῖς λιτανείαις πρὸς
τοὺς θεούς, τὸ δὲ σῶμα τοῖς νομίμοις καθαρσίοις
καθήρασθαι.
Τὰ γοῦν πλήθη τὰ παρὰ τῶν λεγομένων κληρι-
κῶν ἐξηπατημένα πρόδηλον ὅτι ταύτης ἀφαιρε-
θείσης στασιάζει τῆς ἀδείας. οἱ γὰρ εἰς τοῦτο
τετυραννηκότες οὐκ ἀγαπῶσιν ὅτι μὴ. τίνουσι
δίκην ὑπὲρ ὧν ἔπραξαν κακῶν, ποθοῦντες δὲ τὴν
προτέραν δυναστείαν, ὅτι μὴ δικάξειν ἔξεστιν
αὐτοῖς καὶ γράφειν διαθήκας. καὶ ἀλλοτρίους
σφετερίζεσθαι κλήρους καὶ τὰ πάντα ἑαυτοῖς"
προσνέμειν, πάντα κινοῦσιν ἀκοσμίας κάλων καὶ,
τὸ λεγόμενον, πῦρ ἐπὶ πῦρ ὀχετεύουσι καὶ τοῖς
προτέροις κακοῖς μείζονα ἐπιθεῖναι τολμῶσιν, εἰς
διάστασιν ἄγοντες τὰ πλήθη. ἔδοξεν οὖν μοι
1 So Reiske for MS. τοῦ διά τινα ; Hertlein suggests νὴ Ala
τοῦ τινα ; βίᾳ Heyler suggests.
1 4. 6. for others. Julian no longer allowed legacies to be
left to churches ; οἵ, Codex Theodos. 3.1.3. The clergy and
especially the bishops had exercised certain civil functions of
130
ἜΝ ee”, ee ee eee ex ee
TO THE CITIZENS OF BOSTRA
the gods. They therefore leave no stone unturned,
and have the audacity to incite the populace to
disorder and revolt, whereby they both act with
impiety towards the gods and disobey my edicts,
humane though these are. At least I do not allow
a single one of them to be dragged against his
will to worship at the altars; nay, I proclaim in so
many words that, if any man of his own free will
choose to take part in our lustral rites and libations,
he ought first of all to offer sacrifices of purification
and supplicate the gods that avert evil. So far am
I from ever having wished or intended that anyone
of those sacrilegious men should partake in the
sacrifices that we most revere, until he has purified
his soul by supplications to the gods, and his body
by the purifications that are customary.
It is, at any rate, evident that the populace who
have been led into error by those who are called
“clerics,” are in revolt because this license has been
taken from them. For those who have till now
behaved like tyrants are not content that they are
not punished for their former crimes, but, longing for
the power they had before, because they are no
longer allowed to sit as judges and draw up wills!
and appropriate the inheritances of other men and
assign everything to themselves, they pull every
string? of disorder, and, as the proverb says, lead
fire through a pipe to fire,? and dare to add even
greater crimes to their former wickedness by lead-
ing on the populace to disunion. Therefore I have
which Julian deprived them, and they lost the immunity from
taxation that had been granted by Christian emperors. For
this οἵ, Sozomen 5. 5.
2 Literally ‘“‘cable,” a proverb. 3. Cf. ‘add fuel to fire.”
131
K 2
438
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
πᾶσι τοῖς δήμοις προαγορεῦσαι διὰ τοῦδε τοῦ δια-
τάγματος καὶ φανερὸν καταστῆσαι, μῆ συστα-
σιάζειν τοῖς κληρικοῖς μηδὲ ἀναπείθεσθάι παρ᾽
αὐτῶν λίθους αἴρειν μηδὲ ἀπιστεῖν τοῖς ἄρχουσιν,
ἀλλὰ συνιέναι μὲν ἕως ἂν ἐθέλωσιν, εὔχεσθαι δὲ
ἃς νομίζουσιν εὐχὰς ὑπὲρ ἑαυτῶν" εἰ δὲ ἀναπεί-
θοιεν ὑπὲρ ἑαυτῶν στασιάζειν, μηκέτι συνάδειν,
ἵνα μὴ δίκην δῶσι.
Ταῦτα δέ μοι παρέστη τῇ Βοστρηνῶν ἰδίᾳ προ-
αγορεῦσαι πόλει διὰ τὸ τὸν ἐπίσκοπον Τίτον καὶ
τοὺς κληρικοὺς ἐξ ὧν ἐπέδοσαν βιβλίων τοῦ μετὰ
σφῶν πλήθους κατηγορηκέναι, ὡς αὐτῶν μὲν
παραινούντων τῷ πλήθει μὴ στασιάζειν, ὁρμω-
μένου δὲ τοῦ πλήθους πρὸς ἀταξίαν. ἐν γοῦν
τοῖς βιβλίοις καὶ αὐτὴν ἣν ἐτόλμησεν ἐγγράψαι
τὴν φωνὴν ὑπέταξά μου τῷδε τῷ διατάγματι.
“Καίτοι Χριστιανῶν ὄντων ἐφαμίλλων τῷ πλήθει
τῶν Ἑλλήνων, κατεχομένων δὲ τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ παρ-
αἰνέσει μηδένα μηδαμοῦ ἀτακτεῖν. ταῦτα γάρ
ἐστιν ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν τοῦ ἐπισκόπου τὰ ῥήματα. ὁρᾶτε
ὅπως τὴν ὑμετέραν εὐταξίαν οὐκ ἀπὸ τῆς ὑμε-
τέρας εἶναί φησι γνώμης, οἵ γε ἄκοντες, ὥς γε
εἶπε, κατέχεσθε διὰ τὰς αὐτοῦ παραινέσεις. ὡς
οὖν κατήγορον ὑμῶν ἑκόντες 1 τῆς πόλεως διώξατε,
τὰ πλήθη δὲ ὁμονοεῖτε πρὸς ἀλλήλους, καὶ μηδεὶς
ἐναντιούσθω μηδὲ ἀδικείτω" μήθ᾽ οἱ πεπλανημένοι
1 Klimek suggests ἑλόντες.
1 So far the edict has a general character and may have
been sent out broadcast. ‘The last paragraph is apparently
added as a special instruction to the citizens of Bostra, and
especially to the Christians, whom he incites against their
bishop.
132
TO THE CITIZENS OF BOSTRA
decided to proclaim to all communities of citizens,
by means of this edict, and to make known to all,
that they must not join in the feuds of the clerics or
be induced by them to take stones in their hands or
disobey those in authority; but they may hold
meetings for as long as they please and may offer on
their own behalf the prayers to which they are
accustomed ; that, on the other hand, if the clerics
try to induce them to take sides on their behalf in
quarrels, they must no longer consent to do so, if
they would escape punishment.!
I have been led to make this proclamation to the
city of Bostra in particular, because their bishop
Titus and the clerics, in the reports that they have
issued, have made accusations against their own
adherents, giving the impression that, when the popu-
lace were on the point of breaking the peace, they
themselves admonished them not to cause sedition.
Indeed, I have subjoined to this my decree the
very words which he dared to write in his report:
« Although the Christians are a match for the Hel- |
lenes in numbers, they are restrained by our admoni-
tion that no one disturb the peace in any place.”’ For
these are the very words of the bishop about you.
You see how he says that your good behaviour was
not of your own choice, since, as he at any rate
alleged, you were restrained against your will by his
admonitions! Therefore, of your own free will, seize
. your accuser and expel him from the city,? but do you,
the populace, live in agreement with one another, and
let no man be quarrelsome or act unjustly. Neither
2 Julian’s advice was not followed, since Socrates, History
of the Church 3.25, mentions Titus as bishop of Bostra under
the Emperor Jovian in 363.
433
388
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
τοῖς ὀρθῶς καὶ δικαίως τοὺς θεοὺς θεραπεύουσι
κατὰ τὰ ἐξ αἰῶνος ἡμῖν παραδεδομένα, μήθ᾽ οἱ
θεραπευταὶ τῶν θεῶν λυμαίνεσθε ταῖς οἰκίαις ἢ
διαρπάξετε τῶν ἀγνοίᾳ μᾶλλον ἢ ἢ γνώμῃ πεπλανη-
μένων. λόγῳ δὲ πείθεσθαι χρὴ καὶ διδάσκεσθαι
τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, οὐ πληγαῖς οὐδὲ ὕβρεσιν οὐδὲ
αἰκισμῷ τοῦ σώματος. αὖθις δὲ καὶ πολλάκις
παραινῶ τοῖς ἐπὶ τὴν ἀληθῆ θεοσέβειαν ὁρμω-
μένοις μηδὲν ἀδικεῖν τῶν T αλιλαίων τὰ πλήθη,
μηδὲ ἐπιτίθεσθαι μηδὲ ὑβρίζειν εἰς αὐτούς. ἐλεεῖν
δὲ χρὴ μᾶλλον ἢ μισεῖν τοὺς ἐν 1 τοῖς μεγίστοις
πράττοντας κακῶς" μέγιστον γὰρ τῶν καλῶν ὡς
ἀληθῶς ἡ θεοσέβεια, καὶ τοὐναντίον τῶν κακῶν
ἡ δυσσέβεια. συμβαίνει δὲ τοὺς ἀπὸ θεῶν ἐπὶ
τοὺς νεκροὺς καὶ τὰ λείψανα μετατετραμμένους
ταύτην ἀποτῖσαι τὴν ζημίαν"3 ws τοῖς μὲν ἐνεχο-
μένοις νόσῳ ὃ τινὶ συναλγοῦμεν, τοῖς δὲ ἀπο-
λυομένοις καὶ ἀφιεμένοις ὑπὸ τῶν θεῶν συνηδό-
μεθα.
"E600n τῇ τῶν Καλανδῶν Αὐγούστων ἐν
᾿Αντιοχείᾳ.
42
Καλλιξείνῃ 4
Χρόνος δίκαιον ἄνδρα δείκνυσιν μόνος,
ὡς παρὰ τῶν ἔμπροσθεν ἔγνωμεν" ἐγὼ δ᾽ ἂν φαίην
1 ἐπὶ MSS. ἐν Hertlein suggests.
2 After ζημίαν Hertlein thinks some words are lost.
8 νόσῳ Hertlein would add ; Heyler κακῷ understood. .
4 Hertlein 2].
1 Sozomen 5. 5 and 15 seems to be an echo of Julian.
134
TO CALLIXEINE
let those of you who have strayed from the truth
outrage those who worship the gods duly and justly,
according to the beliefs that have been handed down
to us from time immemorial; nor let those of you
who worship the gods outrage or plunder the houses
of those who have strayed rather from ignorance than
of set purpose. It is by reason that we ought to
persuade and instruct men, not by blows, or insults,
or bodily violence. Wherefore, again and often I ad-
monish those who are zealous for the true religion not
to injure the communities of the Galilaeans or attack
or insult them. Nay, we ought to pity rather than
hate men who in matters of the greatest importance
are in such evil case, (For in very truth the greatest
of all blessings is reverence for the gods, as, on the
other hand, irreverence is the greatest of all evils.
It follows that those who have turned aside from the
gods to corpses ? and relics pay this as their penalty.) ὃ
Since we suffer in sympathy with those who are
afflicted by disease,* but rejoice with those who are
being released and set free by the aid of the gods.
Given at Antioch on the First of August.
492
To Callixeine >
‘Time alone proves the just man,’ ® as we learn
from men of old; but I would add the god-fearing
2 So Julian styles Christ and the martyrs ; cf. Against the
- Galilaeans 3358 ; Vol. 2, Misopogon 3618.
3 ὦ 6, that they are in evil case.
4 For Christianity a disease cf. Vol. 2, 229p, and below,
p. 207.
5 Otherwise unknown. Julian visited Pessinus in Phrygia
on his way to Antioch. See Introduction,
δ Sophocles, Oedipus Rex 614.
135
389
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
a Ἂν / ᾽ ’
ὅτι Kal τὸν εὐσεβῆ καὶ τὸν φιλόθεον. ἀλλ
ἐμαρτυρήθη, φής, καὶ ἡ Πηνελόπη φίλανδρος.
εἶτα μετὰ τὸ φίλανδρον ' τὸ ᾿φιλόθεον τίς ἐν
γυναικὶ, δεύτερον τίθησι, καὶ οὐ φαίνεται " πολὺν
πάνυ τὸν μανδραγόραν ἐ ἐκπεπωκώς ; ; εἰ δὲ καὶ τοὺς
καιρούς τις ἐν νῷ λάβοι καὶ τὴν μὲν Πηνελόπην
ἐπαινουμένην σχεδὸν ὑπὸ πάντων ἐπὶ τῇ φιλαν-
δρίᾳ, κινδυνευούσας δὲ τὰς εὐσεβεῖς ὀλίγῳ πρό-
τερον γυναῖκας, καὶ προσθήκην δὲ τῶν κακῶν,
ὅτι καὶ διπλάσιος ὁ χρόνος, ap’ ἔστι σοὶ τὴν
Πηνελόπην ἀξίως παραβάλλειν ; ἀλλὰ μὴ μικροὺς
ποιοῦ τοὺς ἐπαίνους" ἀνθ᾽ ὧν ἀμείψονται μέν σε
πάντες οἱ θεοί, τὸ παρ᾽ ἡμῶν δὲ διπλῇ σε τιμή-
σομεν τῇ ἱερωσύνῃ. πρὸς ἣ γὰρ πρότερον εἶχες
τῆς ἁγιωτάτης θεοῦ Δήμητρος, καὶ τῆς μεγίστης
Μητρὸς θεῶν τῆς Φρυγίας ἐν τῇ θεοφιλεῖ Πεσσι-
νοῦντι τὴν ἱερωσύνην ἐπιτρέπομέν σοι.
48
Εὐσταθίῳ φιλοσόφῳ 3
Μὴ λίαν ἢ κοινὸν τὸ προοίμιον Τὸν ἐσθλὸν
ἄνδρα. τὰ δὲ ἐφεξῆς οἶσθα δήπουθεν. ἀλλὰ καὶ
1 Reiske suggests ; Hertlein, MSS. τοῦ φιλάνδρου.
2 Klimek ; φανεῖται Hertlein, MSS.
3 Hertlein 76. This letter is preserved in Vaticanus 1353
only.
1 To drink mandragora (mandrake), is a proverb for
sluggish wits; but mandrake was used also as a stimulus
to love.
136
TO EUSTATHIUS THE PHILOSOPHER
and pious man also, However, you say, the love
of Penelope for her husband was also witnessed
to by time. Now who would rank a woman’s piety
second to her love for her husband without appearing
to have drunk a very deep draught of mandragora ὃ 1
And if one takes into account the conditions of
the times and compares Penelope, who is almost
universally praised for loving her husband, with pious
women who not long ago hazarded their lives; and
if one considers also that the period was twice as long,
which was an aggravation of their sufferings; then, I
ask, is it possible to make any fair comparison between
you and Penelope? Nay, do not belittle my praises.
All the gods will requite you for your sufferings
and for my part I shall honour you with a double
priesthood. For besides that which you held before
of priestess to the most venerable goddess Demeter,
I entrust to you the office of priestess to the most
mighty Mother of the gods in Phrygia at Pessinus,
beloved of ‘the gods.
43
To Eustathius the Philosopher 3
Pernars the proverb “ An honest man’’ %—is too
hackneyed. I am sure you know the rest. More
* See Introduction under Eustathius. He evidently ac-
cepted this invitation ; see the next letter. He was a pagan
and a friend of Libanius ; cf. Ammianus 17. 5. 15; Eunapius,
Lives, pp. 392 foll. (Wright).
5. Euripides frag. 902, Nauck :
Τὸν ἐσθλὺν ἄνδρα, κἂν ἑκὰς ναίῃ χθονός,
Κἂν μήποτ᾽ ὕσσοις εἰσίδω, κρίνω φίλον.
**An honest man, though he dwell far away and I never
see him with my eyes, him I count a friend.”
137
362
From
Antioch
416
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
ἔχεις. οἶσθα μὲν γὰρ ἅτε “λόγιος ὧν καὶ φιλό-
σοῴος τὸ ἑπόμενον αὐτῷ, ἐμὲ δὲ ἔ ἔχεις φίλον, εἴπερ
γοῦν | ἄμφω ἐσθλοί ἐσμεν. ὑπὲρ γὰρ σοῦ τοῦτο
Kav διατειναίμην, ὅτι τοιοῦτος εἶ, περὶ δὲ ἐμαυτοῦ
σιωπῶ" γένοιτο δὲ τοὺς ἄλλους αἰσθέσθαι καὶ
ἐμοῦ τοιούτου. τί οὖν ὥσπερ ἄτοπόν τι λέξων 5
κύκλῳ περίειμι δέον 3 εἰπεῖν ; ἧκε καὶ σπεῦδε
Kal, 70 λεγόμενον, ἵπτασο. πορεύσει δέ σε θεὸς
εὐμενὴς μετὰ τῆς ᾿Ενοδίας παρθένου, καὶ ὑπουρ-
γήσει δρόμος δημόσιος ὀχήματι βουλομένῳ χρή-
σασθαι, καὶ παρίπποις δυσίν.
44
Εὐσταθίῳ φιλοσόφῳ *
Χρὴ ξεῖνον παρεόντα φιλεῖν, ἐθέλοντα δὲ πέμ-
πειν
“Ὅμηρος ὁ σοφὸς ἐνομοθέτησεν" ἡμῖν δὲ ὑπάρ-
χεὶ πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἕξενικῆς φιλίας ἀμείνων ἣ τε
διὰ τῆς ἐνδεχομένης παιδείας καὶ τῆς περὶ τοὺς
θεοὺς εὐσεβείας, ὥστ᾽ οὐκ av μέ τις ἐγράψατο
δικαίως ὡς τὸν .Ομήρου παραβαίνοντα νόμον, εἰ
1 γοῦν Hertlein suggests ; οὖν MSS., Hertlein.
2 χέξων Hertlein suggests ; λέγων MSS., Hertlein.
3 After δέον Thomas would add ἁπλῶς.
4 Hertlein 39. Cumont restores Εὐσταθίῳ from X (Papa-
dopoulos); Hertlein, following Martin, τῷ αὐτῷ 1.6. Maximus,
to whom the preceding letter in Hertlein’s edition is
addressed ; Estienne Μαξίμῳ φιλοσόφῳ. The Aldine has no
title.
138
TO EUSTATHIUS
than this, you possess it; for, rhetorician and philo-
sopher as you are, you know the words that come
next, and you possess me for a friend, at least if
we are both honest men. On your behalf I would
strenuously maintain that you are in that category,
but about myself I say nothing. I only pray that
others may find by experience that I also am
honest! You ask why I go round in a circle as
though I were going to say something extraordinary
when I ought to speak out? Come, then, lose no
time; fly hither, as we say. A kindly god will speed
you on your way with the aid of the Maiden of the
Cross Roads and the state post! will be at your
disposal if you wish to use a carriage; and two
extra horses,
44
To Eustathius 2
“ Entrreat kindly the guest in your house, but
speed him when he would be gone.” ὃ
Thus did wise Homer decree. But the friendship
that exists between us two is stronger than that be-
tween guest and host, because it is inspired by the
best education attainable and by our pious devotion
to the gods. So that no one could have fairly
indicted me for transgressing the law of Homer if
1 The cursus publicus was the system of posting stations
_where horses were kept ready for the use of the Emperor or
his friends; cf. above, p. 83 70 Basil, end.
* Hertlein, following an error in the editions of Martin and
Kstienne, makes Julian address this letter to Maximus. For
the answer of Eustathius see p. 291.
3 Odyssey 15. 74; this had become a proverb, ef. Libanius,
Letter 130.
139
362
From
Antioch
432
376
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
Kal ἐπὶ πλεῖόν σε μένειν Tap ἡμῖν ἤἠξίωσα. ἀλλὰ
σοι τὸ σωμάτιον ἰδὼν ἐπιμελείας πλείονος δεόμενον
ἐπέτρεψα βαδίξειν εἰς τὴν πατρίδα, καὶ ῥᾳστώνης
ἐπεμελήθην τῆς πορείας. ὀχήματι γοῦν ἔξεστί
σοι δημοσίῳ χρήσασθαι, πορεύοιεν δέ σε σὺν
᾿Ασκληπιῷ πάντες οἱ θεοί, καὶ πάλιν ἡμῖν συντυ-
χεῖν δοῖεν.
45
‘
"Exdixi@ ἐπάρχῳ Αἰγύπτου 1
‘H μὲν παροιμία φησίν ‘ "ἐμοὶ διηγοῦ ov? τοὐ-
μὸν ὄναρ," ἐγὼ δ᾽ ἔοικα σοὶ τὸ σὸν ὕπαρ ἀφηγεῖ-
σθαι. πολύς. φασίν, ὁ Νεῖλος ἀρθεὶς μετέωρος
τοῖς πήχεσιν ἐπλήρωσε πᾶσαν τὴν Αἴγυπτον" εἰ
δὲ καὶ τὸν ἀριθμὸν a ἀκοῦσαι ποθεῖς, εἰς τὴν εἰκάδα
τοῦ Σεπτεμβρίου τρὶς πέντε. μηνύει δὲ ταῦτα
Θεόφιλος ὁ ὁ στρατοπεδάρχης. εἰ τοίνυν ἠγνόησας
αὐτὸ, παρ᾽ ἡμῶν ἀκούων εὐφραίνου.
46
᾿Εκδικίῳ ἐπάρχῳ Αἰγύπτου ὃ
Ei καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἕνεκα μὴ γράφεις ἡμῖν, ἀλλ᾽
ὑπέρ γε τοῦ θεοῖς ἐχθροῦ χρῆν σε γράφειν Αθανα-
1 Hertlein 50.
2 This is the reading of Suidas, who quotes ἐμοὶ---ἀφηγε-
ἴσθαι ; Ambrosianus σὺ διηγοῦ ; Hertlein, following Vossianus,
διηγεῖ. 8 Hertlein 6.
1 Cappadocia.
* The premature death of Julian prevented the fulfilment
of this wish.
140
TO ECDICIUS, PREFECT OF EGYPT
I had insisted that you should remain still longer
with us. But I see that your feeble frame needs
more care, and I have therefore given you permis-
sion to go to your own country,! and have provided
for your comfort on the journey. That is to say,
you are allowed to use a state carriage, and may
Asclepius and all the gods escort you on your way
and grant that we may see you again ! 3
45
To Ecdicius, Prefect of Egypt ὃ
As the proverb says, “You told me my own
dream.” * And I fancy that I am relating to you
your own waking vision. ‘The Nile, they tell me,
had risen in full flood, cubits high, and has inundated
the whole of Egypt. If you want to hear the
figures, it had risen fifteen cubits 5 on the twentieth
of September. Theophilus, the military prefect,
informs me-of this. So, if you did not know it, hear
it from me, and let it rejoice your heart.
46
To Ecdicius, Prefect of Egypt
Even though you do not write to me® on other
matters, you ought at least to have written about
8 For Ecdicius see p. 155.
4 Cf. ‘‘Queen Anne is dead.” Ecdicius presumably knew
‘what Julian tells him.
5 Pliny, Natural History 5. 9, says that a rise of 15 cubits
gives Egypt security, 16 is luxury; Ammianus 22, 15 says
that cultivators fear a rise of more than 16 cubits, The
Egyptian cubit was about 22 inches.
6 Egypt was the peculiar property of the Roman Emperors
and reports were made by the prefect to them,
141
302
October
From
Antioch
362
About
October
From
Antioch
432
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
σίου, Kal ταῦτα πρὸ πλείονος ἤδη χρόνου τὰ καλῶς
ἡμῖν ἐγνωσμένα πεπυσμένον. ὄμνυμι δὲ τὸν μέγαν
Σάραπιν, ὡς εἰ μὴ πρὸ τῶν Δεκεμβρίων Καλανδῶν
ὁ θεοῖς ἐχθρὸς ᾿Αθανάσιος ἐξέλθοι ἐκείνης τῆς πό-
λεως, μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ πάσης; τῆς Αἰγύπτου, τῇ
ὑπακουούσῃ σοι τάξει προστιμήσομαι χρυσοῦ
λίτρας ἑκατόν. οἶσθα δὲ ὅπως εἰμὶ βραδὺς μὲν
εἰς τὸ καταγνῶναι, πολλῷ δὲ ἔτι βραδύτερος εἰς
τὸ ἅπαξ καταγνοὺς ἀνεῖναι. καὶ τῇ αὑτοῦ χειρί"
πάνυ με λυπεῖ τὸ καταφρονεῖσθαι. μὰ τοὺς θεοὺς
πάντας οὐδὲν οὕτως ἂν ἴδοιμι, μᾶλλον δὲ ἀκούσαιμι
ἡδέως παρὰ σοῦ πραχθέν, ὡς ᾿Αθανάσιον ἐξελη-
λαμένον τῶν τῆς Αἰγύπτου ὅρων," τὸν μιαρόν, ὃς
ἐτόλμησεν “EXAnvidas ἐπ᾽ ἐμοῦ γυναῖκας τῶν ἐπι-
σήμων βαπτίσαι. διωκέσθω.
47
᾿Αλεξανδρεῦσιν ὃ
Ei μέν τις τῶν Ταλιλαίων ἣν ὑμῶν οἰκιστής,
οἱ τὸν ἑαυτῶν παραβάντες νόμον ἀπέτισαν ὁποίας
ἣν εἰκὸς δίκας, ἑλόμενοι μὲν ζῆν παρανόμως, εἰσα-
γαγόντες δὲ κήρυγμα καινὸν ὅ καὶ διδασκαλίαν
1 τῆς πόλεως Hertlein suggests.
2 ὅρων Asmus, τόπων Hertlein, MSS.
3. Hertlein 51. 4 Asmus; ἄλλων Hertlein, MSS.
5 καινὸν Asmus adds; see below 4338.
1 Athanasius had disregarded the order to leave Alexandria,
but he now, on October 24th, went into exile in Upper
Egypt; Socrates 3, 14; Sozomen 5, 15; see p. 75.
142
TO THE ALEXANDRIANS
that enemy of the gods, Athanasius,! especially since,
for a long time past, you have known my just decrees.
I swear by mighty Serapis that, if Athanasius the
enemy of the gods does not depart from that city, or
rather from all Egypt, before the December Kalends,
I shall fine the cohort which you command a hundred
pounds? of gold. And you know that, though I am
slow to condemn, I am even much slower to remit
when I have once condemned. Added with his own 1
hand.2 It vexes me greatly that my orders are
neglected. By all the gods there is nothing I should
be so glad to see, or rather hear reported as achieved
by you, as that Athanasius has been expelled beyond
the frontiers of Egypt. Infamous man! He has
had the audacity to baptise Greek women of rank *
during my reign! Let him be driven forth ! ὃ
AY i
To the Alexandrians
Ir your founder had been one of the Galilaeans,
men who have transgressed their own law ὁ and have
paid the penalties they deserved, since they elected
to live in defiance of the law and have introduced a
new doctrine and newfangled teaching, even then
3 The Greek word used is the equivalent of the Latin
libra = 12 ounces.
3 For similar postscripts see pp. 15, 19.
* Or ‘‘ wives of distinguished men.”
5 In the Neapolitanus MS. the following has been added by
a Christian : μακάριος οὗτος, κυὼν μιαρὲ καὶ τρισκατάρατε παρά-
Bara καὶ τρισάθλιε.---"“ This man is a blessed saint, O vile dog
of an apostate, thrice accursed and thrice miserable !”
δ 4. 6. the Hebraic law ; cf. Against the Galilaeans, 2388, foll.,
3058, foll.
143
362
Nov. or
Dec.
From
Antioch
433
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
νεαρών, λόγον ἂν εἶχεν οὐδ᾽ ὡς ᾿Αθανάσιον ὑφ᾽
ὑμῶν ἐπιζητεῖσθαι' νυνὶ δὲ κτίστου μὲν ὄντος
᾿Αλεξάνδρου τῆς πόλεως, ὑπάρχοντος δὲ ὑμῖν
πολιούχου θεοῦ τοῦ βασιλέως Σαράπιδος ἅμα τῇ
παρέδρῳ κόρῃ καὶ τῇ βασιλίδι τῆς Αἰγύπτου
πάσης lows! .. .. τὴν ὑγιαίνουσαν οὐ ζηλοῦν-
τες πόλιν ἀλλὰ τὸ νοσοῦν μέρος ἐπιφημίζειν
ἑαυτῷ τολμᾷ τὸ τῆς πόλεως ὄνομα.
Λίαν αἰσχύνομαι νὴ τοὺς θεούς, ἄνδρες ᾿Αλεξαν-
δρεῖς, εἴ τις ὅλως ᾿Αλεξανδρέων ὁμολογεῖ Γαλι-
λαῖος εἶναι. τῶν ὡς ἀληθῶς “Ἑβραίων οἱ πατέρες
Αἰγυπτίοις ἐδούλευον πάλαι, νυνὶ δὲ ὑμεῖς, ἄνδρες
᾿Αλεξανδρεῖς, Αἰγυπτίων κρατήσαντες" ἐκράτησε
γὰρ ὁ κτίστης ὑμῶν τῆς Αἰγύπτου" τοῖς κατωλι-
γωρηκόσι τῶν πατρίων δογμάτων δουλείαν ἐθελού-
σιον ἄντικρυς τῶν παλαιῶν θεσμῶν ὑφίστασθε.
καὶ οὐκ εἰσέρχεται μνήμη τῆς παλαιᾶς ὑμᾶς ἐκεί-
νης εὐδαιμονίας, ἡνίκα ἦν κοινωνία μὲν πρὸς τοὺς
θεοὺς Αἰγύπτῳ τῇ πάσῃ, πολλῶν δὲ ἀπελαύομεν
ἀγαθῶν. ἀλλ᾽ οἱ νῦν εἰσαγαγόντες ὑμῖν τὸ καινὸν
τοῦτο κήρυγμα τίνος αἴτιοι γεγόνασιν ἀγαθοῦ τῇ
πόλει, φράσατέ μοι. κτίστης ὑμῖν ἣν ἀνὴρ θεοσε-
βὴς ᾿Αλέξανδρος ὁ Μακεδών, οὔτι μὰ Δία κατά
τινα τούτων ὧν οὐδὲ κατὰ πάντας “Ἑβραίους
μακρῷ γεγονότας αὐτῶν κρείττονας. ἐκείνων μὲν
οὖν καὶ ὁ τοῦ Λάγου Τ]τολεμαῖος ἦν ἀμείνων,
1 Some words, 6. g. οὐχ ὑγιαίνετε (Capps) have dropped out;
lacuna Hertlein, following Petavius.
* rovs Asmus adds,
1 Athanasius had left Alexandria on October 24th, 362,
and, not long after, the Alexandrians petitioned Julian for
144
TO THE ALEXANDRIANS
it would have been unreasonable for you to demand
back Athanasius.t_ But as it is, though Alexander
founded your city and the lord Serapis is the city’s
patron god, together with his consort the Maiden,
the Queen of all Egypt, Isis . . .2 not emulating
the healthy part of the city; but the part that is
diseased has the audacity to arrogate to itself the
name of the whole.
I am overwhelmed with shame, I affirm it by the
gods, O men of Alexandria, to think that even a
single Alexandrian can admit that he is a Galilaean.
The forefathers of the genuine Hebrews were the
slaves of the Egyptians long ago, but in these days,
men of Alexandria, you who conquered the Egyptians
—for your founder was the conqueror of Egypt—
submit yourselves, despite your sacred traditions,
in willing slavery to men who have set at naught the
teachings of their ancestors. You have then no re-
collection of thuse happy days of old when all Egypt
held communion with the gods and we enjoyed
many benefits therefrom. But those who have but
yesterday introduced among you this new doctrine,
tell me of what benefit have they been to the city?
Your founder was a god-fearing man, Alexander of
Macedon, in no way, by Zeus, like any of these
persons, nor again did he resemble any Hebrews,
though the latter have shown themselves far superior
to the Galilaeans. Nay, Ptolemy® son of Lagus
his return. This is his answer to them. After this edict
Athanasius remained in hiding in Egypt and the Sudan till
Julian’s death in 363, when he recovered his see.
2 After ‘‘ Isis” some words are missing.
8 Ptolemy the First took Jerusalem and led many Jews
captive into Egypt, Josephus 1. 12. 1.
145
VOL, IIT, L
434
THE ‘LETTERS OF JULIAN
9 3"
Αλέξανδρος δὲ κἂν Ῥωμαίοις εἰς ἅμιλλαν ἰὼν
al na ,
ἀγῶνα παρεῖχε. τί οὖν μετὰ TOV κτίστην οἱ
an an /
Πτολεμαῖοι, τὴν πόλιν ὑμῶν ὥσπερ γνησίαν θυγα-
a a /
τέρα παιδοτροφήσαντες ; οὔτι τοῖς Inood λόγοις
ηὔξησαν αὐτήν, οὐδὲ τῇ τῶν θεοῖς ' ἐχθίστων
lal UA
Γαλιλαίων διδασκαλίᾳ τὴν οἰκονομίαν αὐτῇ Tav-
την, ὑφ᾽ ἧς νῦν ἐστιν εὐδαίμων, ἐξειργάσαντο.
. an ΄ As
τρίτον, ἐπειδὴ “Ῥωμαῖοι κύριοι γεγόναμεν αὐτῆς,
᾽ \ , 3 a 4
ἀφελόμενοι τοὺς Πτολεμαίους ov καλῶς ἄρχοντας,
n a \
ὁ Σεβαστὸς ἐπιδημήσας ὑμῶν TH πόλει Kal πρὸς
5 ΝΜ
τοὺς ὑμετέρους πολίτας διαλεχθεὶς, “”Avdpes,
εἶπεν, ᾿Αλεξανδρεῖς, ἀφίημι τὴν πόλιν αἰτίας
πάσης αἰδοῖ τοῦ μεγάλου θεοῦ Σαράπιδος αὐτοῦ
τε ἕνεκα τοῦ δήμου καὶ τοῦ μεγέθους τῆς πόλεως"
nm a ¢
αἰτία δέ μοι τρίτη τῆς εἰς ὑμᾶς εὐνοίας ἐστὶ Kal ὁ
e a ΕἾ] ” > ; ee 1 La /
ἑταῖρος "Αρειος." av δὲ 0” Apetos οὗτος πολίτης
Ν ς / , \ fa a
μὲν ὑμέτερος, Καίσαρος δὲ τοῦ Σεβαστοῦ συμβιω-
τής, ἀνὴρ φιλόσοφος.
\ \ = 5 \ \ t ς n ς ΄,
Τὰ μὲν οὖν ἰδίᾳ περὶ τὴν πόλιν ὑμῶν ὑπάρξαντα
\ an 3 / a ς > a . /
παρὰ τῶν ᾿Ολυμπίων θεῶν, ὡς ἐν βραχεῖ φράσαι,
a nm Q\ es ae er \ ΄᾽. ΝΠ g\
τοιαῦτα, σιωπῶ δὲ διὰ τὸ μῆκος τὰ πολλά; τὰ δὲ
A oe / > > 7 ’ / > A £8
κοινῇ καθ᾽ ἡμέραν οὐκ ἀνθρώποις ὀλίγοις οὐδὲ ἑνὶ
γένει οὐδὲ μιᾷ πόλει, παντὶ δὲ ὁμοῦ τῷ κόσμῳ
παρὰ τῶν ἐμφανῶν 5 θεῶν διδόμενα πῶς ὑμεῖς οὐκ
1 θεοῖς Asmus adds,
2 ἐμφανῶν Asmus; ἐπιφανῶν Hertlein, MSS.
1 For the Alexandrine Stoic, Areius, cf. Julian, Caesars,
Vol. 2, 3268; Letter to Themistius, Vol.2, 265c, where Areius
is said to have refused the prefecture of Egypt; and Philo-
146
TO THE ALEXANDRIANS
proved stronger than the Jews, while Alexander, if
he had had to match himself with the Romans,
would have made even them fight hard for
supremacy. And what about the Ptglemies who
succeeded your founder and nurtured your city from
her earliest years as though she were their own
daughter? It was certainly not by the preachings
of Jesus that they increased her renown, nor by the
teaching of the Galilaeans, detested of the gods,
did they perfect this administration which she
enjoys and to which she owes her present good
fortune. Thirdly, when we Romans became her
masters and took her out of the hands of the
Ptolemies who misgoverned her, Augustus visited
your city and made the following speech to your
citizens: ‘ Men of Alexandria, I absolve the city of
all blame, because of my reverence for the mighty
god Serapis, and further for the sake of the people
themselves and the great renown of the city. But
there is a third reason for my goodwill towards you,
and that is my comrade Areius.’’1 Now this Areius
was a fellow-citizen of yours and a familiar friend of
Caesar Augustus, by profession a philosopher.
These, then, to sum them up briefly, are the
blessings bestowed by the Olympian gods on your
city in peculiar, though I pass over very many
because they would take too long to describe. But
the blessings that are vouchsafed by the visible gods
_ to all in common, every day, not merely to a few
persons or a single race, or to one city, but to the
whole world at the same time, how can you fail to
stratus, Lives of the Sophists, Introduction, p. xxiii (Loeb
Library Edition). See Seneca, Dialogues 6. 4, where Areius
consoles and exhorts the Empress Livia.
147
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
” , a b] ς , / > a ᾽
ἴστε; μόνοι τῆς ἐξ «Ηλίου κατιούσης αὐγῆς avat-
σθήτως ἔχετε; μόνοι θέρος οὐκ ἴστε καὶ χειμῶνα
Tap αὐτοῦ γινόμενον ; μόνοι ζῳογονούμενα καὶ
’ “ἪἬ > a
φυόμενα Tap αὐτοῦ τὰ πάντα; τὴν de ἐξ αὐτοῦ
\ 2 bf a \ a e /
καὶ παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ δημιουργὸν τῶν ὅλων Σελήνην
“" a 7. a
οὖσαν οὐκ αἰσθάνεσθε πόσων ἀγαθῶν αἰτία TH
a lal O77
πόλει γίνεται ; καὶ τούτων μὲν τῶν θεῶν οὐδένα
an an “ v e
προσκυνεῖν τολμᾶτε: ὃν δὲ οὔτε ὑμεῖς οὔτε οἱ
πατέρες ὑμῶν ἑοράκασιν ᾿Ιησοῦν οἴεσθε χρῆναι
θ x , 1 e / ἃ δὲ ? .A ef
cov λόγον ὑπάρχειν. ὃν δὲ ἐξ αἰῶνος ἅπαν
Crm \ a 3 ΄ / \ i \
ὁρᾷ τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένος καὶ βλέπει Kal
/
σέβεται καὶ σεβόμενον εὖ πράττει, τὸν μέγαν
vd n \
Ηλιον λέγω, TO ζῶν ἄγαλμα καὶ ἔμψυχον καὶ
ἔννουν καὶ ἀγαθοεργὸν τοῦ νοητοῦ πατρός,". .. εἴ
τι μοι πείθεσθε παραινοῦντι, καὶ μικρὰ ὑμᾶς
αὐτοὺς émavaydyeTe πρὸς τήν ἀλήθειαν. οὐχ
ἁμαρτήσεσθε γὰρ τῆς ὀρθῆς ὁδοῦ πειθόμενοι τῷ
πορευθέντι κἀκείνην τὴν ὁδὸν ἄχρις ἐτῶν εἴκοσι
καὶ ταύτην ἤδη σὺν θεοῖς πορευομένῳ δωδέκατον
ἔτος.
[έ a ,
Ei μὲν οὖν φίλον ὑμῖν πείθεσθαι, μειζόνως
1 Cobet omits λόγον as a theologian’s gloss, but Julian is
thinking of the beginning of 8S. John’s Gospel; cf. Against
the Galilaeans, 3278, 333n,c for his attack on the doctrine
of Christ the Word.
* Here some words are lost, probably omitted by Christian
copyists as blasphemous, Asmus rightly restores πατρός ;
Hertlein, following Osann, παντός.
1 For Selene as the artificer of the visible world cf. Vol. 1,
Oration 4, 150.
148 :
TO THE ALEXANDRIANS
know what they are? Are you alone insensible
to the beams that descend from Helios? Are you
alone ignorant that summer and winter are from
him? Or that all kinds of animal and plant life
proceed from him? And do you not perceive what
great blessings the city derives from her who is
generated from and by him, even Selene who is the
creator of the whole universe?! Yet you have the
audacity not to adore any one of these gods; and
you think that one whom neither you nor your
fathers have ever seen, even Jesus, ought to rank
as God the Word. But the god whom from time
immemorial the whole race of mankind has beheld
and looked up to and worshipped, and from that
worship prospered, I mean mighty Helios, his intelli-
gible father’s living image,? endowed with soul and
intelligence, cause of all good . . . if you heed my
admonition, do ye lead yourselves even a little
towards the truth. For you will not stray from the
right road? if you heed one who till his twentieth
year walked in that road of yours, but for twelve
years now has walked in this road I speak of, by the
grace of the gods.*
Therefore, if it please you to obey me, you will
2 Cf. Fragment of a Letter toa Priest, Vol. 2, 295a, where
the stars are called ‘‘ living images.”’ Julian here refers not
to the visible sun, but to the “" intellectual”’ (voepds) Helios
who is in the likeness of his ‘‘intelligible” (νοητὸς) father,
the transcendental Helios, for whom cf. Oration 4, Vol. 1, 1380,
note.
3 For Julian’s reproach against the Christians that they
had taken ‘‘their own road” and abandoned the teaching of
Moses, cf. Against the Galilaeans 43a.
4 Cf. Vol. 1, Oration 4, 1314 where he also refers to the
time when he was a Christian and desires that it may be
forgotten,
149
PL
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
εὐφρανεῖτε" τ τῇ δεισιδαιμονίᾳ δὲ καὶ κατηχήσει
τῶν πανούργων ἀνθρώπων ἐ ἐμμένειν εἴπερ ἐθέλοιτε,
τὰ πρὸς ἀλλήλους ὁμονοεῖτε καὶ τὸν ᾿Αθανάσιον
μὴ ποθεῖτε. πολλοὶ πάντως εἰσὶ τῶν αὐτοῦ μα-
θητῶν δυνάμενοι τὰς ἀκοὰς ὑμῶν κνησιώσας καὶ
δεομένας ἀσεβῶν ῥημάτων ἱκανῶς παραμυθήσα-
σθαι. ὥφελε yap Αθανασίῳ ὁμοῦ ᾿ ἡ τοῦ δυσσε-
βοῦς αὐτοῦ διδασκαλείου κατακεκλεῖσθαι μοχθη-
ρία. νῦν δέ ἐστι πλῆθος ὑμῖν οὐκ ἀγεννές, καὶ
πρᾶγμά δὲ 3 οὐδέν. ὃν γὰρ ἂν ἕλησθε τοῦ πλή-
θους, ὅσα γε εἰς τὴν τῶν γραφῶν διδασκαλίαν
ἥκει, χείρων οὐδὲν ἔσται τοῦ παρ᾽ ὑμῶν ποθου-
μένου. εἰ δὲ τῆς ἄλλης ἐντρεχείας ἐρῶντες ᾿Αθα-
νασίου" “πανοῦργον γὰρ εἶναι τὸν ἄνδρα πυνθάνο-
μαι" ταύτας ἐποιήσασθε τὰς δεήσεις, ἴ ἴστε δι᾽ αὐτὸ
τοῦτο ® αὐτὸν ἀπεληλαμένον τῆς πόλεως" ἀνεπι-
τήδειος γὰρ φύσει προστατεύειν δήμου πολυπράγ-
μων ἀνήρ. εἰ δὲ μηδὲ ἀνήρ, ἀλλ᾽ ἀνθρωπίσκος
εὐτελής, καθάπερ οὗτος ὁ μέγας οἰόμενος περὶ τῆς
κεφαλῆς κινδυνεύειν, τοῦτο δὲ ὁ δίδωσιν ἀταξίας
ἀρχήν. ὅθεν, ἵνα μὴ γένηται τοιοῦτο περὶ ὑμᾶς
μηδέν, ἀπελθεῖν αὐτῷ προηγορεύσαμεν τῆς πόλεως
πάλαι, νυνὶ δὲ καὶ Αἰγύπτου πάσης.
Προτεθήτω τοῖς ἡμετέροις πολίταις ᾿Αλεξαν-
δρεῦσιν.
1 Asmus ὅμοῦ or ἅμα; Sintenis μόνον; Hertlein, MSS.
μόνῳ; Hertlein suggests μόνῳ γε.
τε Hertlein, MSS. ; δὲ Hertlein suggests ; Hercher would
delete τε.
5 MSS. διὰ τοῦτο; Reiske διὰ τοῦτο αὐτό; Hertlein suggests
δι᾽ αὐτὸ τοῦτο.
* Sintenis deletes δέ; Hercher lacuna after ἀρχήν ; Capps
suggests δή,
159
TO THE ALEXANDRIANS
rejoice me the more. ‘But if you choose to persevere
in the superstition and instruction of wicked men, at
least agree among yourselves and do not crave for
Athanasius, In any case there are many of his
pupils who can comfort well enough those itching
ears of yours that yearn to hear impious words. 1
only wish that, along with Athanasius, the wicked-
ness of his impious school had been suppressed. But
as it is you have a fine crowd of them and need have
no trouble. For any man whom you elect from the
crowd will be in no way inferior to him for whom
you crave, at any rate for the teaching of the scrip-
tures. But if you have made these requests because
you are so fond of the general subtlety of Athanasius
—for I am informed that the man is a clever rascal
—then you must know that for this very reason he
has been banished from the city. For a meddlesome
man is unfit by nature to be leader of the people.
But if this leader is not even a man but only a
contemptible puppet, like this great personage who
thinks he is risking his head, this surely gives the
signal for disorder. Wherefore, that nothing of the
sort may occur in your case, as I long ago gave
_ orders! that he depart from the city, I now say, let
him depart from the whole of Egypt.
Let this be publicly proclaimed to my citizens of
Alexandria.
1 See above, 70 the Alexandrians, p. 75.
151
448
Β
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
48
"AreEavdpevav |
᾿Οβελὸν εἶναι παρ᾽ ὑμῖν ἀκούω λίθινον εἰς ὕψος
ἱκανὸν ἐπηρμένον, ἐπὶ τῆς novos ὥσπερ ἄλλο τί
τῶν ἀτιμοτάτων ἐ ἐρριμμένον. ἐπὶ τοῦτον ἐναυπηγή-
σατο σκάφος ὁ μακαρίτης Κωνστάντιος, ὡς μετά-
ξων αὐτὸν εἰς τὴν ἐμὴν πατρίδα Κωνσταντίνου
πόλιν. ἐπεὶ δε ἐκείνῳ συνέβη θεῶν ἐθελόντων
ἐνθένδε ἐ ἐκεῖσε πορευθῆναι τὴν εἱμαρμένην πορείαν,
ἡ πόλις ἀπαιτεῖ παρ᾽ ἐμοῦ τὸ ἀνάθημα, πατρὶς
οὖσά μου" καὶ προσήκουσα πλέον ἤπερ ἐκείνῳ.
ὁ μὲν γὰρ αὐτὴν ὡς “ἀδελφήν, ἐγὼ δὲ ὡς μητέρα
φιλῶ" καὶ γὰρ ἐγενόμην παρ᾽ αὐτῇ καὶ ἐτράφην
ἐκεῖσε, καὶ οὐ δύναμαι περὶ αὐτὴν ἀγνωμονῆσαι.
τί οὖν ; ἐπειδὴ καὶ ὑμᾶς οὐδὲν ἔλαττον τῆς πατρί-
δος φιλῶ, δίδωμι καὶ παρ᾽ ὑμῖν ἀναστῆσαι τὴν
χαλκῆν εἰκόνα. πεποίηται δὲ ἔναγχος ἀνδριὰς
τῷ μεγέθει κολοσσικός, ὃν ἀναστήσαντες ἕξετε
ἀντὶ ἀναθήματος λιθίνου χαλκοῦν, ἀνδρός, οὗ
φατε ποθεῖν, εἰκόνα καὶ μορφὴν ἀντὶ τετραγώνου ὃ
λίθου χαράγματα ἔχοντος Αἰγύπτια. καὶ τὸ λε-
γόμενον δέ, ὥς τινές εἰσιν οἱ θεραπεύοντες Kal.
1 Hertlein 58; the first part of this letter was published
by Rigaltius, Paris, 1601, the whole letter by Muratorius,
Padua, 1709.
2 Hertlein suggests μοι.
® σριγώνου Hertlein, MSS. ; τετραγώνου La Bléterie, as the
obelisk is four-sided.
* This granite monolith, which stands in the At Meidén
(the hippodrome) in Constantinople, was originally erected
by Thothmes ITI. (about. 1515 B.c.), probably at Heliopolis.
152
TO THE ALEXANDRIANS
48
To the Alexandrians
I am informed that there is in your neighbourhood Early
a granite obelisk! which, when it stood erect, }°
reached a considerable height, but has been thrown Antioch
down and lies on the beach as though it were some-
thing entirely worthless. For this obelisk Con-
stantius of blessed memory had a freight-boat built,
because he intended to convey it to my native place,
Constantinople. But since by the will of heaven he
has departed from this life to the next on that journey
to which we are fated,? the city claims the monument
from me because it is the place of my birth and more
closely connected with me than with the late
Emperor. For though he loved the place as a sister
Ilove itasmy mother. And I was in fact born there
and brought up in the place, and I cannot ignore its
claims. Well then, since J love you also, no less than
my native-city, I grant to you also permission to
set up the bronze statue*in your city. A statue has
lately been made of colossal size. If you set this up
you will have, instead of a stone monument, a bronze
statue of aman whom you say you love and long for,
and a human shape instead of a quadrangular block
of granite with Egyptian characters on it. Moreover
the news has reached me that there are certain
The Alexandrians obeyed Julian's orders, but the boat con-
. taining the obelisk was driven by a storm to Athens, where
it remained till the Emperor Theodosius (379-395 A.D.)
conveyed it to Constantinople. There, as an inscription on
its base records, it took 32 days to erect; see Palatine
Anthology 9. 682. 2 Plato, Phaedo, 1176.
3 Of himself (2) or of Constantius. The Emperor’s permis-
sion was necessary for the erection of a statue by a city.
153
422
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
προσκαθεύδοντες αὐτοῦ τῇ κορυφῇ, πάνυ με πείθει
χρῆναι τῆς δεισιδαιμονίας ἕνεκα ταύτης ἀπάγειν
αὐτόν. οἱ γὰρ θεώμενοι τοὺς καθεύδοντας ἐκεῖ,
πολλοῦ μὲν ῥύπου, πολλῆς δὲ ἀσελγείας περὶ τὸν
τόπον ὡς ἔτυχεν οὔσης, οὔτε πιστεύουσιν αὐτὸν
θεῖον εἶναι, καὶ διὰ τὴν τῶν προσεχόντων αὐτῷ
δεισιδαιμονίαν a ἀπιστότεροι περὶ τοὺς θεοὺς καθί-
στανταῖι. δι’ αὐτὸ δὴ οὖν τοῦτο καὶ μᾶλλον ὑμῖν
προσήκει συνεπιλαβέσθαι καὶ πέμψαι τῇ ἐμῇ πα-
τρίδι τῇ ξενοδοκούσῃ καλῶς ὑ ὑμᾶς, ὅτε εἰς τὸν Πόν-
τον εἰσπλεῖτε, καὶ ὥσπερ εἰς τὰς τροφὰς καὶ εἰς
τὸν ἐκτὸς κόσμον συμβάλλεσθαι. πάντως οὐκ
ἄχαρι καὶ παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς ἑστάναι τι τῶν ὑμετέρων,
εἰς ὃ προσπλέοντες τῇ πόλει μετ᾽ εὐφροσύνης
ἀποβλέψετε.
49
᾿Εκδικίῳ 1
"Αξιόν ἐστιν, εἴπερ ἄλλου τινός, καὶ τῆς ἱερᾶς
ἐπιμεληθῆναι μουσικῆς. ἐπιλεξάμενος οὖν ἐκ τοῦ
δήμου τῶν ᾿Αλεξανδρέων. εὖ γεγονότας. μειρακί-
σκους ἀρτάβας ἑκάστῳ σίτου" κέλευσον δύο τοῦ
1 Hertlein 56.
2 σίτου Hertlein adds,
1 Possibly there was a martyr’s grave near, at which the
Christians worshipped; more probably, Christian or Jewish
ascetics who flourished at Alexandria and were called thera-
peuts,” ‘‘ worshippers,” had settled near the obelisk. Sozo-
154
a
TO ECDICIUS, PREFECT OF EGYPT
persons who worship there and sleep? at its very .
apex, and that convinces me beyond doubt that on
account of these superstitious practices I ought to
take it away. For men who see those persons
sleeping there and so much filthy rubbish and care-
less and licentious behaviour in that place, not only
do not believe that it ? is sacred, but by the influence
of the superstition of those who dwell there come to
have less faith in the gods. Therefore, for this very
reason it is the more proper for you to assist in this
business and to send it to my native city, which
always receives you hospitably when you sail into
the Pontus, and to contribute to its external adorn-
ment, even as you contribute to its sustenance. It
cannot fail to give you pleasure to have something
that has belonged to you standing in their city, and
as you sail towards that city you will delight in
gazing at it.
49
To Ecdicius, Prefect of Egypt
Ir there is anything that deserves our fostering
care, it is the sacred art of music. Do you therefore
select from the citizens of Alexandria® boys of good
birth, and give orders that two artabae‘ of corn are
men 6. 29 says that about 2000 ascetic monks lived in the
neighbourhood of Alexandria. See also Sozomen 1. 12.
és 2. ὦ, e. the obelisk, which was originally dedicated to the
un.
8 For the study of music at Alexandria cf. Ammianus
Marcellinus 22. 16. 17, nondumque apud eos penitus exaruit
musica, nec harmonia conticuit.
4 The artaba, an Egyptian dry measure, was equivalent to
about nine gallons,
155
362 or
early
in 363
From
Antioch
443
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
Ν aA », / 5 > “ 1 \ > ἐκ
μηνὸς χορηγεῖσθαι, ἔλαιόν τε ἐπ αὐτῷ ' καὶ οἶνον
ἐσθῆτα δὲ παρέξουσιν οἱ τοῦ ταμιείου προεστῶτες.
οὗτοι δὲ τέως ἐκ φωνῆς καταλεγέσθωσαν. εἰ δέ.
τινες δύναιντο καὶ τῆς ἐπιστήμης αὐτῆς εἰς ἄκρον
μετασχεῖν, ἴστωσαν 2 ἀποκείμενα πάνυ μεγάλα
τοῦ πόνου τὰ ἔπαθλα καὶ παρ᾽ ἡμῖν. ὅτι γὰρ πρὸ
ἡμῶν αὐτοὶ τὰς ψυχὰς ὑπὸ τῆς θείας μουσικῆς
καθαρθέντες ὀνήσονται, πιστευτέον τοῖς προαπο-
φαινομένοις ὀρθῶς ὑπὲρ τούτων. ὑπὲρ μὲν οὖν
τῶν παίδων τοσαῦτα. τοὺς δὲ νῦν ἀκροωμένους
τοῦ μουσικοῦ Διοσκόρου ποίησον ἀντιλαβέσθαι
τῆς τέχνης προθυμότερον, ὡς ἡμῶν ἑτοίμων ἐπὶ
ὅπερ ἂν ἐθέλωσιν αὐτοῖς συνάρασθαι.
δ0
Διονυσίῳ 5
> ͵ 9 lal ’ Ey a >
Αμείνων ἦσθα σιωπῶν πρότερον ἢ νῦν ἀπο-
/ > \ \ > ἴω , ,
λογούμενος: οὐδὲ yap ἐλοιδοροῦ τότε, καίτοι
διανοούμενος ἴσως αὐτό' νυνὶ δὲ ὥσπερ ὠδίνων
\ a τὸ a / ? , 5“. " ΕΓ \
τὴν καθ᾽ ἡμῶν λοιδορίαν ἀθρόαν ἐξέχεας. ἢ yap
> / \ ὃ / πόσας ‘ /
ov χρή με Kal λοιδορίαν αὐτὸ καὶ βλασφημίαν
͵ Ὁ“ val a / ς 7
νομίξειν, ὅτε με τοῖς σεαυτοῦ φίλοις ὑπελάμβανες
/ /
εἶναι προσόμοιον, ὧν ἑκατέρῳ δέδωκας σεαυτὸν
1 After αὐτῷ Hertlein brackets καὶ σῖτον.
2 torwv Hertlein suggests.
3 Hertlein 59. In Laurentianus LVIII the title is Ἰουλιανὸς
κατὰ τοῦ Νείλου ; Διονυσίῳ first appears in the Paris edition,
1630.
156
TO NILUS, SURNAMED DIONYSIUS
to be furnished every month to each of them, with
olive oil also, and wine. The overseers of the
Treasury will provide them with clothing. For the
present let these boys be chosen for their voices,
but if any of them should prove capable of attaining
to the higher study of the science of music, let them
be informed that very considerable rewards for their
work have been set aside at my court also. For
they must believe those who have expressed right |
opinions on these matters that they themselves
rather than we will be purified in soul by divinely
inspired! music, and benefit thereby. So much,
then, for the boys. As for those who are now the
pupils of Dioscorus the musician, do you urge them
to apply themselves to the art with still more zeal,
for I am ready to assist them to whatever they may
wish,
50
To Nilus, surnamed Dionysius 2
Your earlier silence was more creditable than
your present defence; for then you did not utter
abuse, though perhaps it was in your mind. But
now, as though you were in travail, you have poured
out your abuse of me wholesale. For must I not
regard it as abuse and slander that you supposed me
to be like your own friends, to each of whom you
_ offered yourself uninvited; or rather, by the first®
1 Julian does not mean sacred music in particular; ef.
Vol. 1, Oration 3. 1110, where θεία is used of secular music.
* For the name and personality of Nilus see Introduction,
under Nilus.
3 Constans ; cf. Vol. 1, Oration 1. 9p.
157
362-363
Winter
From
Antioch
444
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
ἄκλητον, μᾶλλον δὲ τῷ μὲν ἄκλητον, τῷ προτέρῳ,
τῷ δευτέρῳ δὲ ἐνδειξαμένῳ μόνον, ὅτι σε “συνεργὸν ;
ἐθέλει προσλαβεῖν, ὑ ὑπήκουσας. ἀλλο εἰ μὲν ἐγὼ
προσόμοιός εἰμι Κώνσταντι καὶ Μαγνεντίῳ, τὸ
πρᾶγμα αὐτό, φασί, δείξει" σὺ δ᾽ ὅτι κατὰ τὸν
κωμικὸν
σαυτὴν ἐπαινεῖς ὥσπερ ᾿Αστυδάμας, γύναι,
πρόδηλόν ἐστιν ἐξ ὧν ἐπέστειλας. ἡ ἡ γὰρ ἀφοβία
καὶ τὸ “μέγα θάρσος καὶ τὸ εἴθε με γνοίης ὅσος καὶ
οἷός εἰμι, καὶ πάντα ἁπλῶς τὰ τοιαῦτα, βαβαί,
πηλίκου κτύπου καὶ κόμπου ῥημώτων ἐστίν.
ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς τῶν Χαρίτων καὶ τῆς ᾿Αφροδίτης,
εἰ τολμηρὸς οὕτως εἶ! καὶ γενναῖος, τί καὶ τρίτον
ηὐλαβήθης, ἂν δέῃ, προσκρούειν ; οἱ γὰρ τοῖς
κρατοῦσιν ἀπεχθανόμενοι, τὸ μὲν κουφότατον
καί, ὡς ἂν εἴποι τις, ἥδιστον τῷ γε νοῦν ἔχοντι,
τοῦ πράγματα ἔχειν ταχέως ἀπαλλάττονται,
μικρὰ δὲ εἰ χρὴ προσζημιωθῆναι, περὶ τὰ xem
ματα πταίουσι" τὸ δὲ κεφάλαιόν ἐστι τῆς ὀργῆς
καὶ τὸ παθεῖν, φασί, τὰ ἀνήκεστα, τὸ ζῆν
προέσθαι. τούτων δὴ πάντων ὑπερορῶν, ὅτι καὶ
τὸν ἰδίως ἄνδρα 3 ἐπέγνωκας" καὶ τὸν κοινῶς καὶ
γενικῶς ἄνθρωπον ὑφ᾽ ἡμῶν τῶν ὀψυμαθῶν
ἀγνοούμενον, ἀνθ᾽ ὅτου, πρὸς τῶν θεῶν, εὐλα-
1 οὕτως εἶ Hertlein suggests; Fabricius οὑτωσί; MSS.
οὑτοσί, or εἰ καὶ τ. οὕτω.
2. Lacuna Hertlein, MSS.; ἄνδρα Asmus.
1 Magnentius; cf. Oration 1 for the defeat of this usurper
by Constantius. Magnentius had murdered Constans, see
Oration 1. 268, 2. 55p. 2 Cf. Vol. 2, Caesars 307A.
158
TO NILUS, SURNAMED DIONYSIUS
you were not invited, and you obeyed the second ἢ
on his merely indicating that he wished to enlist
you to help him. However, whether I am like
Constans and Magnentius the event itself, as they
say, will prove.2 But as for you, from what you
_ wrote it is very plain that, in the words of the comic
poet,
“You are praising yourself, lady, like Astydamas.”’
For when you write about your “ fearlessness”? and
“great courage,’ and say “ Would that you knew
my real value and my true character!” and, in a
word, all that sort of thing,—for shame! What an
empty noise and display of words is this! Nay, by
the Graces and Aphrodite, if you are so brave and
noble, why were you “so careful to avoid incurring
displeasure,” if need be, “for the third time”’?+ For
when men fall under the displeasure of princes, the
lightest consequence—and, as one might say, the
most agreeable to a man of sense—is that they are
at once relieved from the cares of business; and if
they have to pay a small fine as well, their stumbling
block is merely money; while the culmination of the
prince’s wrath, and the “fate beyond all remedy”
as the saying is, is to lose their lives. Disregarding
all these dangers, because, as you say, “you had
come to know me in my private capacity for the man
I am’ 5—and in my common and generic capacity
for the human being I am, though unknown to
myself, late learner that 1 am !—why, in heaven's
name, did you say that you were careful to avoid
8 Philemon frag. 190; cf. Letter to Basil, p. 83; this had
become a proverb.
4 2.6. after his experiences with Constans aud Magnentius.
5 A quotation from the other’s letter.
159
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
βεῖσθαι ἔφης, μὴ τρίτον προσκρούσῃς; ov yap
δὴ πονηρὸν ἐκ χρηστοῦ σε ποιήσω χαλεπήνας
ἐγώ: ζηλωτὸς γὰρ ἂν ἣν ἐν δίκῃ τοῦτο δυνάμενος"
ἢ γάρ, ὥς φησι ἸΠλάτων, καὶ τοὐναντίον οἷός
τε ἣν ἄν. ἀδεσπότου δὲ τῆς ἀρετῆς οὔσης ἐχρῆν
ὑπολογίζεσθαι μηδὲν τῶν τοιούτων. ἀλλ᾽ οἴει
μέγα τὸ πάντας μὲν βλασφημεῖν, πᾶσι δὲ ἁπλῶς
λοιδορεῖσθαι, καὶ τὸ τῆς εἰρήνης τέμενος ἀπο-
φαίνειν ἐργαστήριον πολέμου. ἢ τοῦτο νομίξεις
ὑπὲρ τῶν παλαιῶν ἁμαρτημάτων ἀπολογεῖσθαι
πρὸς ἅπαντας, καὶ τῆς πάλαι ποτὲ μαλακίας
παραπέτασμα τὴν νῦν ἀνδρείαν εἶναί σοι; τὸν
μῦθον ἀκήκοας τὸν Βαβρίου “ Ταλῆ ποτ᾽ ἀνδρὸς
εὐπρεποῦς ἐρασθεῖσα": τὰ δὲ ἄλλα ἐκ τοῦ
βιβλίου μάνθανε. πολλὰ εἰπὼν οὐδένα ἂν πεί-
σειας ἀνθρώπων, ὡς οὐ γέγονας ὅπερ οὖν γέγονας
καὶ οἷον πολλοὶ πάλαι σε ἠπίσταντο. τὴν νῦν
δὲ ἀμαθίαν καὶ τὸ θάρσος οὐχ ἡ φιλοσοφία μὰ
τοὺς θεοὺς ἐνεποίησέ σοι, τοὐναντίον δὲ ἡ διπλῆ
κατὰ Πλάτωνα ἄγνοια.Σ κινδυνεύων γὰρ εἰδέναι
μηδέν, ὡς οὐδὲ ἡμεῖς, οἴει δὴ3 πάντων εἶναι
σοφώτατος, οὐ τῶν νῦν ὄντων μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ
τῶν γεγονότων, ἴσως δὲ καὶ τῶν ἐσομένων. οὕτω
σοι πρὸς ὑπερβολὴν ἀμαθίας τὰ τῆς οἰήσεως
ἐπιδέδωκεν.
1 ἄνοια Schwarz, cf. Plato, Timacus 808, δύο δ᾽ ἀνοίας
γένη.
2 δὴ Asmus adds,
1 Crito 44D. 2 Piato, Republic 6178.
’ The Senate; for the phrase ἐργαστήριον πολέμου cf.
Xenophon, Hellenica 3. 4. 17.
160
TO NILUS, SURNAMED DIONYSIUS
incurring displeasure for the third time? For surely
my anger will not change you from a good man into
a bad. I should be enviable indeed, and with justice,
if I had the power to do that ; for then, as Plato says,!
I could do the converse as well. But since virtue
owns no master,? you ought not to have taken into
account anything of the sort. However, you think
it is a fine thing to speak ill of all men, and to abuse
all without exception, and to convert the shrine of
peace ὃ into a workshop of war. Or do you think
in this way to excuse yourself in the sight of all for
your past sins, and that your courage now is a
sereen to hide your cowardice of old? You have
heard the fable of Babrius:4* “Once upon a time a
weasel fell in love with a handsome youth.”” The
rest of the fable you may learn from the book. How-
ever much you may say, you will never convince
any human being that you were not what you were,
and such as many knew you to be in the past. As
for your ignorance and audacity now, it was not
philosophy that implanted them in you, no, by
heaven! On the contrary, it was what Plato®
calls a twofold lack of knowledge. For though you
really know nothing, just as I know nothing, you
think forsooth that you are the wisest of all men,
not only of those who are alive now, but also of
those who have ever been, and perhaps of those
who ever will be. To such a pitch of ignorance
has your self-conceit grown !
4 Fable 32, the weasel or cat, transformed into a woman,
could not resist chasing a mouse.
5 Cf. Proclus on Cratylus 65 for this Neo-Platonic phrase ;
and Plato, Apology 210. In Sophist 2298 Plato defines the
ignorance of those who do not even know that they are
ignorant, as τῶν κακῶν αἰτία, καὶ ἣ ἐπονείδιστος ἀμαθία.
161
VOL, III, M
445
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
᾿Αλλὰ σοῦ μὲν ἕνεκα καὶ ταῦτα τῶν ἱκανῶν
εἴρηταί μοι πλείω, δεῖ δὲ ἴσως ἀπολογήσασθαι διὰ
σὲ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις, ὅτι προχείρως ἐπὶ κοινωνίαν
σε παρεκάλεσα πραγμάτων. τοῦτ᾽ οὐ πρῶτος
οὐδὲ μόνος ἔπαθον, ὦ Διονύσιε. ἐξηπάτησε καὶ
Πλάτωνα τὸν μέγαν ὁ σὸς ὁμώνυμος, ἀλλὰ Kai}
ὁ ᾿Αθηναῖος Κάλλιπος" εἰδέναι μὲν γὰρ αὐτόν
φησι πονηρὸν ὄντα,3 τηλικαύτην δὲ ἐν αὐτῷ τὸ
μέγεθος κακίαν οὐδ᾽ ἂν ὃ ἐλπίσαι πώποτε. καὶ
τί χρὴ λέγειν ὑπὲρ τούτων, ὅπου καὶ τῶν
᾿Ασκληπιαδῶν ὁ ἄριστος Ἱπποκράτης ἔφη"
Ἔσφηλαν δέ μου τὴν γνώμην αἱ ἐν τῇ κεφαλῇ
ῥαφαί; εἶτ᾽ ἐκεῖνοι μὲν ὑπὲρ ὧν ἤδεσαν ἐξηπα-
τῶντο, καὶ τὸ τεχνικὸν ἐλάνθανε τὸν ἰατρὸν
θεώρημα, θαυμαστὸν δέ, εἴπερ Ἰουλιανὸς ἀκούσας
ἐξαίφνης ἀνδρίξεσθαι τὸν Νεῖλον * Διονύσιον
ἐξηπατήθη; ἀκούεις ἐκεῖνον τὸν Ἠλεῖον Φαίδωνα,
καὶ τὴν ἱστορίαν ἐπίστασαι" εἰ δὲ ἀγνοεῖς, ἐπι-
μελέστερον ᾿πολυπραγμόνησον, ἐγὼ δ᾽ οὖν ὃ ἐρῶ
τοῦτο. ἐκεῖνος ἐνόμιζεν οὐδὲν ἀνίατον εἶναι τῇ
φιλοσοφίᾳ, πάντας δὲ ἐκ πάντων ὑπ᾽ αὐτῆς
καθαίρεσθαι βίων, Te HOON ἐπιθυμιῶν,
1 Δίωνα Hertlein adds. ὄντα Cobet adds.
3 οὐδὲ Hertlein, MSS. ; οὐδ᾽ by Hertlein suggests.
4 Hertlein, following Hercher, [τὸν Ne:Agov ἢ]; Laurenti-
anus Asmus τὸν Νεῖλον ; Wilamowitz τὸν δειλὺν omitting
Διονύσιον ; Heyler regards ἢ Διονύσιον as a gloss.
5 δ᾽ οὖν Wright ; δὲ οὐκ MSS., Hertlein; μόνον Hertlein
suggests; Asmus retains οὐκ.
1 The tyrant of Syracuse.
2 Callippus, who assassinated Dio in 353 B.c., was himself
put to death by the Syracusans after he had usurped the
government,
162
TO NILUS, SURNAMED DIONYSIUS
However, as far as you are concerned, this that
I have said is more than enough; but perhaps 1
ought to apologise on your account to the others
because I too hastily summoned you to take part
in public affairs. I am not the first or the only one,
Dionysius, who has had this experience. Your
namesake! deceived even great Plato; and Cal-
lippus? the Athenian also deceived Dio. For
Plato says® that Dio knew he was a bad man but
that he would never have expected in him such a
degree of baseness. Why need I quote the experi-
ence of these men, when even Hippocrates,* the
most distinguished of the sons of Asclepius, said:
“The sutures of the head bated my judgement.”
Now if those famous men were deceived about
persons whom they knew, and the physician was
mistaken in a professional diagnosis, is it surprising
that Julian was deceived when he heard that Nilus
Dionysius had suddenly become brave? You have
heard tell of the famous Phaedo of Elis,> and you
know his story. However, if you do not know it,
study it more carefully, but at any rate I will
tell you this part. He thought that there is
nothing that cannot be cured by philosophy, and
that by her all men can be purified from all their
modes of life, their habits, desires, in a word from
3 Plato, Epistle 7. 351p, Ε.
4 Hippocrates, 5. 3. 561 Kiihn. This candid statement of
. Hippocrates, who had failed to find a wound in a patient’s
head, was often cited as a proof of a great mind; cf.
Plutarch, De profectu in virtute, 820.
δ᾽ For the reformation of Phaedo by philosophy, see
Aulus Gellius 2.18 and Julian, Vol. 2, 264p (Wright). He
was a disciple of Socrates and wrote several dialogues ; for
his Life see Diogenes Laertius, 2. 105; cf. Wilamowitz in
Hermes 14,
163
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
πάντων ἁπαξαπλῶς τῶν τοιούτων. εἰ γὰρ τοῖς
εὖ πεφυκόσι καὶ “καλῶς τεθραμμένοις “ἐπήρκει
nih οὐδὲν ἂν ἣν θαυμαστὸν τὸ κατ᾽ αὐτήν'
i δὲ καὶ τοὺς οὕτω διακειμένους ἀνάγει πρὸς
τὰ φῶς, δοκεῖ μοι διαφερόντως εἶναι θαυμάσιον.
ἐκ τούτων ἡ ἡ περὶ σέ μοι. κατ᾽ ὀλίγον γνώμη, ὡς
ἴσασιν οἱ θεοὶ πάντες, ἔρρεπεν. ἐπὶ τὸ βέλτιον.
οὔτοι γοῦν οὔτε ἐν πρώτοις οὔτε ἐν δευτέροις
τῶν κρατίστων ἐθέμην ἀνδρῶν τὸ κατὰ σέ.
ἐπίστασαι ἴσως αὐτός" εἰ δὲ ἀγνοεῖς, τοῦ καλοῦ
Συμμάχου πυνθάνου. πέπεισμαι yap, ἐκεῖνος
ὅτι οὔποτ᾽ ἂν ἑκὼν εἶναι ψεύσαιτο, τὰ πάντα
ἀληθίξεσθαι πεφυκώς. εἰ δὲ ἀγανακτεῖς, ὅτε μὴ
πάντων σε ᾿προυτιμήσαμεν, ἐγὼ μὲν ἐμαυτῷ, ὅτι
σε καὶ ἐν ἐσχάτοις ἔταξα, μέμφομαι, καὶ χάριν
οἶδα τοῖς θεοῖς πᾶσί τε καὶ πάσαις, οἱ κοινωνῆσαί
σε πραγμάτων καὶ φίλους ἡμᾶς γενέσθαι διε-
κώλυσαν. . . . καὶ γὰρ εἰ πολλὰ περὶ τῆς φήμης
οἱ ποιηταί φασιν ὡς ἔστι θεός, ἔστω δέ, εἰ βούλει,
δαιμόνιόν ye! τὸ τῆς φήμης, οὐ πάνυ τι" προσ-
εκτέον αὐτῇ, διότι πέφυκε τὸ δαιμόνιον οὐ
πάντα καθαρὸν οὐδὲ ἀγαθὸν τελείως ὡς τὸ τῶν
θεῶν εἷναι γένος, ἀλλ᾽ ἐπικοινωνεῖ πως καὶ πρὸς
θάτερον. εἰ δὲ ὑπὲρ τῶν ἄλλων δαιμόνων οὐ
1 δαιμόνιόν ye Asmus; δαιμόνιον, καὶ MSS., Hertlein; τὸ
Tis φήμης Asmus rejects as a gloss, Thomas reads ἔστω---
φήμης as a parenthesis ; so too Asmus.
2 πάνυ τι Asmus; πάντη MSS., Hertlein.
1 j.e, as Phaedo. Wilamowitz thinks that this sentence
and the preceding are quoted or paraphrased from Phaedo.
* This was probably L. Aurelius Avianius Symmachus
the Roman senator, prefect of the city in 364-5, father of
the orator Quintus Aurelius Symmachus; Ammianus 9].
164
TO NILUS, SURNAMED DIONYSIUS
everything of the sort. If indeed she only availed
those who are well born and well bred there would
be nothing marvellous about philosophy ; but if she
can lead up to the light men so greatly depraved,!
then I consider her marvellous beyond anything.
For these reasons my estimate of you, as all the
gods know, inclined little by little to be more favour-
able; but even so I did not count your sort in
the first or the second class of the most virtuous.
Perhaps you yourself know this; but if you do
not know it, enquire of the worthy Symmachus.?
For I am convinced that he would never willingly
tell a lie, since he is naturally disposed to be
truthful in all things. And if you are aggrieved
that I did not honour you before all others, I for
my part reproach myself for having ranked you
even among the last in merit, and I thank all
the gods and goddesses who hindered us from
becoming associated in public affairs and from
being intimate ...% And indeed, though the
poets have often said of Rumour that she is a
goddess,’ and let us grant, if you will, that she at
least has demonic power, yet not very much attention
ought to be paid to her, because a demon is not
altogether pure or perfectly good, like the race of
the gods, but has some share of the opposite quality.
And even though it be not permissible to say this
12. 24, describes the meeting of the elder Symmachus and
᾿ Julian in 361 at Nish.
8 The lack of connection indicates a Jacuna though there
is none in the MSS. Probably Julian said that their
intimacy existed only as a rumour.
4 Hesiod, Works and Days 763
φήμη δ᾽ οὔτις πάμπαν ἀπόλλυται, ἥν τινα πολλοὶ
λαοὶ φημίξωσι' θεός νύ τίς ἐστι καὶ αὐτή.
165
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
θέμις τοῦτο φάναι, περὶ τῆς “φήμης οἶδ᾽ ὅτι λέγων
ὡς πολλὰ μὲν ψευδῶς, πολλὰ δὲ ἀληθῶς ἀγγέλλει,
οὔποτ᾽ ἂν αὐτὸς ἁλοίην ψευδομαρτυριῶν.
᾿Αλλὰ τὴν παρρησίαν τὴν σὴν οἴει τεττάρων
εἶναι ὀβολῶν, τὸ λεγόμενον, ἀξίαν; οὐκ οἶσθ᾽ ὅτι
καὶ canes ἐν τοῖς “Ἕλλησιν ἐπαρρησιάξετο,
κα ᾽Οδυσσεὺς μὲν αὐτὸν ὁ συνετώτατος ἔπαιε
τῷ - oxtmnpy, τῷ δὲ ᾿Αγαμέμνονι τῆς Θερσίτου
παροινίας ἔλαττον ἔμελεν ἢ χελώνῃ μυιῶν,
τὸ τῆς παροιμίας;. πλὴν οὐ μέγα ἔργον ἐστὶν
ἐπιτιμᾶν ἄλλοις, ἑαυτὸν δὲ ἀνεπιτίμητον παρα-
σχεῖν. εἰ δέ σοι ταύτης μέτεστι τῆς μερίδος,
ἐπίδειξον ἡμῖν. ap ὅτε νέος ἦσθα, καλὰς ἔδωκας
ὑπὲρ σαυτοῦ τοῖς πρεσβυτέροις ὁμιλίας ; ἀλλ᾽
ἐγὼ, κατὰ τὴν Εὐριπίδειον Ἤλεκτραν τὰς τοιαύτας
σιγῶ τύχας. ἐπεὶ δὲ ἀνὴρ γέγονας καὶ στρατο-
πέδῳ παρέβαλες, ἔπραξας πῶς πρὸς τοῦ Διός ;
ὑπὲρ τῆς ἀληθείας φὴς προσκρούσας ἀπηλλάχθαι.
ἐκ τίνων τοῦτο ἔχων δεῖξαι, ὥσπερ οὐ πολλῶν
καὶ πονηροτάτων, ὑφ᾽ ὧνπερ. καὶ αὐτὸς ἀπηλάθης,
ἐκτοπισθέντων ; οὐ τοῦτό ἐστιν, ὦ συνετώτατε
Διονύσιε, σπουδαίου καὶ σώφρονος ἀνδρός, ἀπε
θανόμενον ἀπελθεῖν τοῖς κρατοῦσιν. ἦσθα εἶ
ἂν βελτίων, εἰ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἐκ τῆς “πρὸς
σεαυτὸν συνουσίας ἀπέφηνας ἡμῖν μετριωτέρους.
ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν οὐ κατὰ σέ, μὰ τοὺς θεούς, οὐδὲ
κατὰ μυρίους ἄλλους, ὅσοι ζηλοῦσι τὸν σὸν τρόπον"
τ Cf. Julian’s reverence for φήμη in Vol. 1, pp. 409, 423;
Vol. 2, p. 347, Wright.
2 Iliad 2 265.
ὃ Orestes 16; τὰς yap ἐν μέσῳ σιγῶ τύχας. Cf. Vol. 2, 70
Themistius, 2548, p. 204, Wright.
166
TO NILUS, SURNAMED DIONYSIUS
concerning the other demons, I know that when I
say of Rumour that she reports many things falsely
as well as many truthfully, I shall never myself be
convicted of bearing false witness.
But as for your “freedom of speech,’ do you
think that it is worth four obols, as the saying
is? Do you not know that Thersites also spoke his
mind freely among the Greeks, whereupon the most
wise Odysseus beat him with his staff,? while Aga-
memnon paid less heed to the drunken brawling of
Thersites than a tortoise does to flies, as the proverb
goes? For that matter it is no great achievement
to criticise others, but rather to place oneself beyond
the reach of criticism. Now if you can claim to be
in this category, prove it to me. Did you not, when
you were young, furnish to your elders fine themes
for gossip about you? However, like Electra in
Euripides,? I keep silence about happenings of this
sort. But when you came to man’s estate and be-
took yourself to the camp,‘ how, in the name of
Zeus, did you behave? You say that you left it
because you gave offence in the cause of truth.
From what evidence can you prove this, as though
many men® and of the basest sort had not been
exiled by the very persons by whom you yourself
were driven away? O most wise Dionysius, it does
not happen to a virtuous and temperate man to go
away obnoxious to those in power! You would have
_ done better if you had proved to us that men from
their intercourse with you were better behaved. But
this was not in your power, no, by the gods, nor is
it in the power of tens of thousands who emulate
4 7. 6, of Constans.
5 We do not know to whom Julian refers,
167
446
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
πέτραι yap πέτραις καὶ λίθοι λίθοις προσαρατ-
τόμενοι οὐκ ὠφελοῦσι μὲν ἀλλήλους, ὁ δ᾽ ἰσχυρό-
TEpos τὸν ἥττονα εὐχερῶς συντρίβει.
"Apa μὴ Λακωνικῶς ταῦτα καὶ συντόμως λέγω;
ἀλλ᾽ ἐγὼ μέν οἶμαι λαλίστερος διὰ σὲ καὶ τῶν
᾿Αττικῶν ἀποπεφάνθαι τεττίγων. ὑπὲρ δὲ ὧν
εἰς ἐμὲ πεπαρῴώνηκας, ἐπιθήσω σοι δίκην τὴν
πρέπουσαν, ἐθελόντων θεῶν καὶ τῆς δεσποίνης
᾿Αδραστείας. τίς οὖν ἡ δίκη καὶ τί μάλιστα τὸ
δυνάμενόν σου τὴν γλῶτταν καὶ τὴν διάνοιαν
ὀδυνῆσαι ; ὡς ἐλάχιστα πειράσομαι διά τε τῶν
λόγων καὶ διὰ τῶν ἔργων ἐξαμαρτὼν. μὴ παρα-
σχέσθαι σον τῇ κακηγόρῳ γλώττῃ πολλὴν
φλυαρίαν. καίτοι με οὐ λέληθεν, ὅτι καὶ τῆς
᾿Αφροδίτης φασὶν ὑπὸ τοῦ Μώμου ἐσκῶφθαι
τὸ σάνδαλον. ἀλλ᾽ ὁρᾷς ὅτι πολλὰ καὶ ὁ Μῶμος
ἐρρήγνυτο, καὶ μόλις ἐλαμβάνετο τοῦ σανδάλου.
εἴη δὲ καὶ σὲ περὶ ταῦτα τριβόμενον καταγηρᾶσαι
καὶ τοῦ Τιθωνοῦ βαθύτερον καὶ τοῦ Kuvipov
πλουσιώτερον καὶ τοῦ Σαρδαναπάλου ᾿ τρυφη-
λότερον, ὅπως τὸ τῆς παροιμίας ἐπὶ σοῦ
πληρωθῇ Δὶς παῖδες οἱ γέροντες.
᾿Αλλ᾽ ὁ θεσπέσιος ᾿Αλέξανδρος ἐκ τίνων ἐφάνη
σοι τηλικοῦτος ; ἄρ᾽ ὅτι μιμητὴς αὐτοῦ γενόμενος
ἐξζήλωσας ὅσα ἐκείνῳ τὸ μειράκιον ὁ ᾿Ερμόλαος
ὠνείδισεν; ἢ τοῦτο μὲν οὐδεὶς οὕτως ἐστὶν
1 See the similar passage on p. 101. Asmus thinks that
the Lauricius there mentioned and Nilus were both Cynics
and therefore obnoxious to Julian.
2 A reference to the letter of Nilus, who had perhaps
asked for a brief answer.
8 Cf. Misopogon 8708, vol. 2, p. 508, Wright.
168
TO NILUS, SURNAMED DIONYSIUS
‘your way of life. For when rocks grind against
rocks and stones against stones they do not benefit
one another, and the stronger easily wears down
the weaker.!
I am not saying this in Laconic fashion? and con-
cisely,am I? Nay, I think that on your account I
have shown myself even more talkative than Attic
grasshoppers. However, in return for your drunken
abuse of myself, I will inflict on you the appropriate
punishment, by the grace of the gods and our lady
Adrasteia.? What, then, is this punishment, and
what has the greatest power to hurt your tongue
and your mind? It is this: I will try, by erring as
little as may be in word and deed, not to provide
your slanderous tongue with so much foolish talk.
And yet I am well aware that it is said that even
the sandal of Aphrodite was satirised by Momus.
But you observe that though Momus poured forth
floods 4 of criticism he could barely find anything to
criticise in her sandal.5 Even so may you grow old
fretting yourself over things of this sort, more
decrepit than Tithonus, richer than Cinyras, more
luxurious than Sardanapalus, so that in you may be
fulfilled the proverb, “Old men are twice children.”
But why does the divine Alexander seem to you
so pre-eminent? Is it because you took to imitating
him and aspired to that for which the youth
Hermolaus® reproached him? Or rather, no one is
4 Or ‘‘ burst with the effort,” cf. rumpi invidia.
5 Philostratus, Epistle 37; Momus complained that
Aphrodite wore a sandal that squeaked.
6. For the plot of Hermolaus and Callisthenes against
Alexander, οἵ. Quintus Curtius 8. 6; Arrian, Anabasis 4.
13. 14; Plutarch, Alexander 55.
169
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
ἀνόητος ὡς ὑπονοῆσαι περὶ σοῦ" τοὐναντίον δὲ
καὶ ὅπερ ἀπωδύρετο παθὼν ‘Epuddaos, καὶ διόπερ
διενοεῖτο τὸν ᾿Αλέξανδρον, ὥς φασιν, ἀποκτεῖναι,
τοῦτο δὲ οὐδεὶς ὅστις πεπεισμένος οὐκ ἔστι περὶ
gov; πολλῶν δὲ ἐγὼ νὴ τοὺς θεοὺς καὶ σφόδρα
σε φαμένων φιλεῖν ἀκήκοα πολλὰ ὑπὲρ ταύτης
ἀπολογουμένων τῆς ἁμαρτίας, ἤδη δέ τινος καὶ
ἀπιστοῦντος. ἀλλ᾽ οὗτός ἐστιν ἡ μία χελιδών,
οὐ ποιεῖ τὸ ἔαρ. ἀλλ᾽ ἴσως ἐκεῖθεν ᾿Αλέξανδρος᾽
ὠφθη σοι μέγας, ὅτι Καλλισθένη μὲν ἀπέκτεινε
πικρῶς, Κλεῖτος δὲ αὐτοῦ τῆς παροινίας ἔργον
ἐγένετο, Φιλώτας τε καὶ ἸΠαρμενίων καὶ τὸ
Παρμενίωνος παιδίον. ἐπεὶ τὰ περὶ tov" Extopa
τὸν ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ 5 τοῦ Νείλου ταῖς δίναις ἢ ταῖς
Εὐφράτου" λέγεται γὰρ ἑκάτερον" ἐναποπνιγέντα
καὶ τὰς ἄλλας αὐτοῦ παιδιὰς σιωπῶ, μὴ βλασ-
φημεῖν ἄνδρα δόξω τὸ κατωρθωμένον μὲν οὐδαμῶς
ἔχοντα, κράτιστον μέντοι τὰ πολεμικὰ στρατηγόν ὃ
ὧν σὺ κατὰ τὴν προαίρεσιν καὶ κατὰ τὴν ἀνδρείαν
ἔλαττον μετέχεις ἢ τριχῶν ἰχθύες. ἄκουε δὴ τῆς
παραινέσεως μὴ λίαν ὀργίλως,
” / 3 “ / / »
οὔ τοι, τέκνον ἐμόν, δέδοται πολεμήια ἔργα,
\ \ thn > / > ov \
τὸ δὲ ἑξῆς ov παραγράφω σοι, αἰσχύνομαι yap
* καὶ---παιδίον Heyler and Hertlein would delete as a gloss,
Asmus retains and reads ἐπεὶ τὰ for ἔπειτα τά.
* ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ Hertlein would delete, Asmus retains, seeing
in the phrase some sneer, the point of which is not now
clear, .
3 στρατηγὸν Hertlein would delete, Asmus retains.
1 The historian who accompanied Alexander to the East.
* Cf. Vol. 2, Caesars 3310, p. 403, note, Wright.
170
TO NILUS, SURNAMED DIONYSIUS
so foolish as to suspect you of that. But the very
opposite, that which Hermolaus lamented that he
had endured, and which was the reason for his
plotting, as they say, to kill Alexander—everyone
believes this about you also, do they not? I call
the gods to witness that I have heard many persons
assert that they were very fond of you and who made
many excuses for this offence of yours, but I have found
just one person who did not believe it. However he
is that one swallow who does not make a spring. But
perhaps the reason why Alexander seemed in your
eyes a great man was that.he cruelly murdered
Callisthenes,! that Cleitus? fell a victim to his
drunken fury, and Philotas too, and Parmenio® and
Parmenio’s son; for that affair of Hector,* who was
smothered in the whirlpools of the Nile in Egypt
or the Euphrates—the story is told of both rivers—
I say nothing about, or of his other follies, lest I
should seem to speak ill of a man who by no means
maintained the ideal of rectitude but nevertheless
excelled as a general in the works of war. Whereas
you are less endowed with both these, namely,
good principles and courage, than a fish with hair.
Now listen to my advice and do not resent it too much.
“Not to thee, my child, have been given the works
of war.” 5
The verse that follows ® I do not write out for you,
8 The general Parmenio and his son Philotas were executed
for treason; Arrian, Anabasis 3. 26.
4 Cf. Quintus Curtius 5. 8. 7; Hector, a son of Parmenio,
was, according to Curtius, accidentally drowned, though
Julian ascribes his death to Alexander.
5 Iliad 5. 428, Zeus to Aphrodite.
ὁ ἀλλὰ σύ γ᾽ ἱμερόεντα μετέρχεο ἔργα γαμοῖο.
171
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
νὴ τοὺς θεούς. ἀξιῶ μέντοι σε προσυπακούειν
αὐτό" καὶ γὰρ εὔλογον ἕπεσθαι τοῖς ἔργοις τοὺς
λόγους, ἀλλὰ μὴ φεύγειν Ta ῥήματα τὸν μηδαμῶς
διαπεφευγότα τὼ ἔργα.
᾿Αλλ’ ὁ τὴν Μαγνεντίου καὶ Κώνσταντος ὁσίαν
αἰσχυνόμενος, ἀνθ᾽ ὅτου τοῖς ζῶσι πολεμεῖς καὶ
τοῖς ὁπωσοῦν βελτίστοις λοιδορῇ ; πότερον ὅτι
μᾶλλον ἐκεῖνοι δύνανται τῶν ζώντων ἀμύνεσθαι
τοὺς λυποῦντας ; ἀλλὰ σοὶ τοῦτο οὐ προσήκει
λεγείν" εἶ γάρ, ὡς γράφεις, θαρραλεώτατος. ἀλλ᾽
εἰ "μὴ τοῦτο, τυχὸν ἕτερον" ὡς γὰρ οὐκ αἰσθανο-
μένους ἐπισκώπτειν ἴ ἴσως οὐ βούλει. τῶν ζώντων
δὲ ἃ apa TLS οὕτως εὐήθης ἐστὶν ἢ μικρόψυχος, ὃ ὃς
ἀξιώσειεν ἂν αὑτοῦ παρὰ σοὶ λόγον εἶναί τινα,
καὶ οὐ βουλήσεται μάλιστα μὲν ἀγνοεῖσθαι παρὰ
σοῦ παντάπασιν, εἰ δ᾽ ἀδύνατον εἴη, λοιδορεῖσθαι
παρὰ σοῦ μᾶλλον, καθάπερ ἐγὼ νῦν, ἢ ἢ τιμᾶσθαι;
μήποτε οὕτω κακῶς φρονήσαιμι, μήποτε τῶν παρὰ
σοῦ μᾶλλον ἐπαίνων ἢ ψόγων ἀντιποιησαίμην.
᾿Αλλ᾽ αὐτὸ τοῦτο τὸ γράφειν πρός σε “δακνομένου
τυχὸν᾽ ἰσως ἐστίν ; οὐ μὰ τοὺς θεοὺς τοὺς σωτῆρας,
ἀλλ᾽ ἐπικόπτοντος τὴν ἄγαν αὐθάδειαν καὶ τὴν
θρασύτητα καὶ τὴν ἀκολασίαν τὴν τῆς γλώττης
καὶ τὸ τῆς ψυχῆς ἄγριον καὶ τὸ μαινόμενον τῶν
φρενῶν καὶ τὸ παρακεκινηκὸς ἐν πᾶσιν. ἐξῆν
γοῦν, εἴπερ ἐδεδήγμην, ἐ ἔργοις ἀλλὰ μὴ λόγοις σε
σφόδρα νομίμως κολάσαι. πολίτης γὰρ ὧν καὶ
1 καθάπερ---νῦν Cobet would delete as a gloss.
1 Julian seems to anticipate the criticism of Nilus that he
is not showing himself superior to Alexander.
* For Julian’s mildness in such cases, see Ammianus. 25.4.
9. Constat eum in apertos aliquos inimicos insidiatores suos
172
TO NILUS, SURNAMED DIONYSIUS
because, by the gods, I am ashamed to do so,
However 1 ask you to understand it as said. For
it is only fair that words should follow on deeds,
and that he who has never avoided deeds should
not avoid the phrases that describe them.
Nay, if you revere the pious memory of Magnentius
and Constans, why do you wage war against the
living and abuse those who excel in any way? Is
it because the dead are better able than the living
to avenge themselves on those who vex them? Yet
it does not become you to say this. For you are, as
your letter says, ‘‘ Very brave indeed.” But if this
is not the reason, perhaps there is a different one.
Perhaps you do not wish to satirise them because
they cannot feel it. But among the living is there
anyone so foolish or so cowardly as to demand that
you should take any notice of him at all, and who
will not prefer if possible to be altogether ignored
by you; but if that should be impossible, to be
abused by you, as indeed I am now abused rather than
honoured? May I never be so ill-advised—may I
never aspire to win praise rather than blame from you!
But perhaps you will say that the very fact that
I am writing to you is a proof that I am stung?!
No, I call the Saviour Gods to witness that I am but
trying to check your excessive audacity and bold-
ness, the license of your tongue and the ferocity of
your soul, the madness of your wits and your per-
verse fury on all occasions. In any case it was in
my power, if I had been stung, to chastise you with
deeds and not merely with words,? and I should have
been entirely within the law. For you are a citizen
ita consurrexisse mitissime, ut poenarum asperitatem genuina
lenitudine castigaret.
173
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
fel ’
τῆς γερουσίας μετέχων αὐτοκράτορος ἐπίταγμα
παρητήσω" τοῦτο δὲ οὐκ ἐξῆν δήπουθεν τῷ μὴ
“- /
μεγάλην ἀνάγκην προϊσχομένῳ. οὔκουν ἐξήρκει
nr / /
μοι ὑπὲρ τούτου ζημιῶσαί σε παντοίαν ζημίαν,
tAN ὠήθην δεῖ ΐ ἧς σε πρῶτον, νομίζων
ἀλλ᾿ φήθην δεῖν γράψαι πρὸς σε πρῶ "οὔ ale
7 a ¢ / > “
ἰάσιμον ἐπιστολίῳ βραχεῖ. ὡς δέ σ᾽ ἐμμένοντα
a al a \ / n
τοῖς αὐτοῖς, μᾶλλον δὲ TO λεληθὸς τέως τῆς
’
μανίας ἐφώρασα, .. .1 μή τι καὶ νομισθείης
/ 4
ἀνήρ, οὐκ ἀνὴρ ὧν, Kal παρρησίας μεστός,
’ὔ
ἐμβροντησίας ὧν πλήρης, καὶ παιδείας μετε-
, > \ \ , e / Φ > /
TXNKWS, οὐδὲ γρὺ λόγων ἁψάμενος, ὅσα γε εἰκὸς
a a \
ἐστι ταῖς ἐπιστολαῖς σου τεκμήρασθαι. τὸ yap
φροῦδον οὐδεὶς εἶπε τῶν ἀρχαίων ἐπὶ τοῦ προ-
φανοῦς, ὥσπερ σὺ νῦν, ἐπεὶ τὰς ἄλλας σου τῆς
ἐπιστολῆς ἁμαρτίας οὐδεὶς ἂν ἐπεξελθεῖν ἐν
“ / \ Ν Ν > lal
μακρῷ βιβλίῳ δυνηθείη καὶ TO μαστροπὸν ἐκεῖνο
\ \ 9s ς ’ Φ \ /
καὶ βδελυρὸν ἦθος, ὑφ᾽ οὗ σεαυτὸν προαγωγεύεις.
> \ \ 5 ε ’ὔ \ 4 2>O\ \
ov yap τοὺς ἐξ ἑτοίμου φὴς ἥκοντας οὐδὲ τοὺς
a al ι /
ἐφεδρεύοντας ταῖς ἀρχαῖς, ἀλλὰ τοὺς BeBaia
/ 6
κρίσει χρωμένους καὶ κατὰ τοῦτο TO δέον aipou-
: ἡ ᾿
μένους τούτους δεῖν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τοὺς ἑτοίμως
ς / e “ 7 ς na 3 ’ὔ
ὑπακούοντας, αἱρεῖσθαι. καλάς γε ἡμῖν ἐλπίδας
/
ὑποφαίνεις οὐδὲν δεομένοις ὡς ὑπείξων, ἢν αὖθίς
σε καλῶμεν ἐπὶ κοινωνίαν 5 πραγμάτων. ἐμοὶ δὲ
τοσοῦτον μέρος τούτου περίεστιν, ὥστε σε, τῶν
1 Lacuna. Some reference to the letters written by
Nilus is needed here.
* κοινωνίαν Asmus cf. 4440 ; κοινωνίᾳ Hertlein, MSS,
174
TO NILUS, SURNAMED DIONYSIUS
and of senatorial rank and you disobeyed a command
of your Emperor ; and such behaviour was certainly
not permissible to anyone who could not furnish the
excuse of real necessity. Therefore I was not satis-
fied with inflicting on you any sort of penalty for
this conduct, but I thought I ought to write to you
first, thinking that you might be cured by a short
letter. But since I have discovered that you per-
sist in the same errors, or rather how great your
frenzy is which I previously did not know . . .1 lest
you should be thought to be ‘a man, when that
you are not, or brimful of freedom of speech, when
you are only full of insanity, or that you have had
the advantage of education when you have not the
smallest acquaintance with literature, as far, at any
rate, as one may reasonably judge from your letters.
For instance, no one of the ancients ever used
φροῦδος 5 to mean “ manifest”’ as you do here,—for,
as for the other blunders displayed in your letter,
no one could describe them even in a long book,
or that obscene and abominable character of yours
that leads you to prostitute yourself. You tell me
indeed that it is not those who arrive offhand or
those who are hunting for public office whom we
ought to choose, but those who use sound judge-
ment and in accordance with this prefer to do their
duty rather than those who are ready and eager to
obey. Fair, truly, are the hopes you hold out to me
though I made no appeal to you, implying that you
will yield if [ again summon you to take part in
public business. But I am so far from doing that,
1 Some words have fallen out.
2 In Attic the word means ‘‘ vanished.”
175
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
ἄλλων εἰσιεμένων, οὐδὲ προσείρηκα πώποτε.
καίτοι γε πρὸς πολλοὺς ἔγωγε τοῦτο ἐποίησα
γνωρίμων. τε καὶ ἀγνοουμένων ἐμοὶ κατὰ τὴν
θεοφιλῆ Ῥώμην διατρίβοντας. οὕτω σου τῆς
φιλίας ἀντεποιούμην, οὕτω σε σπουδῆς ἄξιον
ὠόμην. εἰκὸς οὖν ὅτι καὶ τὰ μέλλοντα πρός
σε τοιαῦτα ἔσται. καὶ γὰρ νῦν ἔγραψα ταυτηνὶ
τὴν ἐπιστολήν, οὐ σοὶ μόνον ἀνάγνωσμα, ἐπεὶ
καὶ ἀναγκαίαν πολλοῖς αὐτὴν noew, καὶ δώσω
γε πᾶσιν οὐκ ἄκουσιν, ὡς ἐμαυτὸν πείθω,
ληψομένοις" σεμνότερον γὰρ ὁρῶντές σε καὶ
ὀγκωδέστερον τῶν ἔμπροσθέν σοι βεβιωμένων
ἄχθονται.
Τελείαν ἔχεις παρ᾽ ἡμῶν τὴν ἀπόκρισιν, ὥστε
σε μηδὲν ἐπιποθεῖν. οὔκουν οὐδὲ ἡμεῖς παρὰ
σοῦ τι πλέον ᾿ἀπαιτοῦμεν' ἀλλ᾽ ἐντυχών, εἰς ὅ
> βούλει τοῖς γράμμασι χρῆσαι" τὼ γὰρ τῆς
ἡμετέρας φιλίας πεπέρανταί σοι. “ἔρρωσο τρυφῶν
καὶ λοιδορούμενος ἐμοὶ παραπλησίως.
51
᾿Ιουδαίων τῷ κοινῷ 4
Πάνυ ὑμῖν φορτικώτατον γεγένηται ἐπὶ τῶν
παρῳχηκότων καιρῶν τῶν ζυγῶν τῆς δουλείας
τὸ διαγραφαῖς ἀκηρύκτοις ὑποτάττεσθαι ὑμᾶς
καὶ χρυσίου πλῆθος ἄφατον εἰσκομίξειν τοῖς
τοῦ ταμιείου λόγοις" ὧν πολλὰ μὲν αὐτοψεὶ
* Asmus suggests μετ᾽ ἄλλων εἰσιέμενον to improve the sense.
2 εἰς ὅ τι Asmus; ὅτε Hertlein, MSS.
8 “πεπέρανταί Cobet, πέπραταί Hercher, Hertlein ; ἐπέπραται
MSS., ἐπείραται A. Asmus suggests ἐκπέπραται = ‘sold
out,” ‘ ruined,”
176
TO THE COMMUNITY OF THE JEWS
that, when the others were admitted, I never even
addressed you at any time. And yet ( did address
many who were known and unknown to me and
dwell in Rome, beloved of the gods. Such was my
desire for your friendship, so worthy of consideration
did I think you! Therefore it is likely that my
future conduct towards you will be much the same.
And indeed I have written this letter now, not for
your perusal alone, since I knew it was needed by
many besides yourself, and I will give it to all, since
all, 1 am convinced, will be glad to receive it. For
when men see you more haughty and more insolent
than befits your past life, they resent it.
You have here a complete answer from me, so
that you can desire nothing more. Nor do I ask
for any further communication from you. But when
you have read my letters use them for whatever
purpose you please. For our friendship is at an end.
Farewell, and divide your time between luxurious
living and abuse of me!
51
To the community of the Jews?
In times past, by far the most burdensome thing
in the yoke of your slavery has been the fact that
you were subjected to unauthorised ordinances and
had to contribute an untold amount of money to
the accounts of the treasury. Of this I used to
1 For this rescript see Introduction.
4 Hertlein 25.
VOL, III. N
Late
862 or
early
863
From
Antioch
B
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
ἐθεώρουν, πλείονα δὲ τούτων ἔμαθον εὑρὼν τὰ
βρέβια τὰ καθ᾽ ὑμῶν φυλαττόμενα" ἔτι δὲ καὶ
μέλλουσαν πάλιν εἰσφορὰν καθ᾽ ὑμῶν προστάτ-
τεσθαι εἶρξα, καὶ τὸ τῆς τοιαύτης δυσφημίας
ἀσέβημα ἐνταῦθα ἐβιασάμην στῆσαι, καὶ πυρὶ
παρέδωκα τὰ βρέβια τὰ καθ᾽ ὑμῶν ἐν τοῖς ἐμοῖς
σκρινίοις “ἀποκείμενα, ὡς μηκέτι δύνασθαι καθ᾽
ὑμῶν τινὰ τοιαύτην ἀκοντίξειν ἀσεβείας φήμην.
καὶ τούτων μὲν ὑμῖν οὐ τοσοῦτον αἴτιος κατέστη
ὁ τῆς μνήμης ἄξιος Κωνστάντιος ὁ ἀδελφός, ὅ ὅσον
οἱ τὴν γνώμην βάρβαροι καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ἄθεοι, οἱ
τὴν τούτου τράπεζαν ἑστιώμενοι, οὺς ἐγὼ μὲν ἐν
χερσὶν ἐμαῖς λαβόμενος εἰς βόθρον ὥσας ὥλεσα,
ὡς μηδὲ μνήμην ἔτι φέρεσθαι παρ᾽ ἡμῖν τῆς αὐτῶν
ἀπωλείας. ἐπὶ πλέον δὲ ὑμᾶς εὐωχεῖσθαι βουλό-
μενος, τὸν ἀδελφὸν Ἴουλον, τὸν αἰδεσιμώτατον
πατριάρχην, παρήνεσα καὶ τὴν λεγομένην εἶναι
παρ᾽ ὑμῖν ἀποστολὴν κωλυθῆναι, καὶ μηκέτι
δύνασθαι τὰ πλήθη ὑμῶν τινὰ ἀδικεῖν τοιαύταις
φόρων εἰσπράξεσιν, ὡς πανταχόθεν ὗ ὑμῖν τὸ ἀμέρι-
μνον ὑπάρχειν ἐπὶ" τῆς ἐμῆς. βασιλείας, ἵ ἵνα ἀπο-
λαύοντες εἰρήνης © ἔτι μείζονας εὐχὰς ποιῆσθε
ὑπὲρ ὃ τῆς ἐμῆς βασιλείας τῷ πάντων κρείττονι
καὶ δημιουργῷ θεῷ, τῷ καταξιώσαντι στέψαι με
τῇ ἀχράντῳ αὐτοῦ δεξιᾷ. πέφυκε γὰρ τοὺς ἔν
τινί μερίμνῃ ἐξεταζομένους περιδεῖσθαι τὴν διά-
1 , Reiske ἐπὶ τῆς ; τῆς Hertlein, MSS.
* εἰρήνης Reiske supplies for lacuna after ἀπολαύοντες,
Hertlein lacuna ; ἡσυχίας Thomas.
3 Reiske ὑπὲρ τῆς ; Hertlein, MSS. τῆς.
1 Or ἀπωλεία may be active = ‘‘ their wickedness. ”
178
TO THE COMMUNITY OF THE JEWS
see many instances with my own eyes, and I have
learned of more, by finding the records which are
preserved against you. Moreover, when a tax was
about to be levied on you again I prevented it, and
compelled the impiety of such obloquy to cease here ;
and I threw into the fire the records against you
that were stored in my desks; so that it is no longer
possible for anyone to aim at you such a reproach
of impiety. My brother Constantius of honoured
memory was not so much responsible for these
wrongs of yours as were the men who used to
frequent his table, barbarians in mind, godless in
soul. These I seized with my own hands and put
them to death by thrusting them into the pit, that
not even any memory of their destruction! might
still linger amongst us. And since I wish that
you should prosper yet more, I have admonished
my brother lulus,? your most venerable patriarch,
that the levy® which is said to exist among you
should be prohibited, and that no one is any longer
to have the power to oppress the masses of your
people by such exactions; so that everywhere, dur-
ing my reign, you may have security of mind, and
in the enjoyment of peace may offer more fervid
prayers‘ for my reign to the Most High God, the
Creator, who has deigned to crown me with his own
immaculate right hand. For it is natural that men
who are distracted by any anxiety should be hampered
2 The Patriarch Hillel II. was at this time about seventy.
3 Literally ‘‘the apostole,” paid by the Jews to maintain
the Patriarchate. It was later suppressed by the Emperor
Theodosius 11.
4 Sozomen 5. 22 says that Julian wrote to the community
of the Jews asking them to pray for him : εὔχεσθαι ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ
καὶ τῆς αὐτοῦ βασιλείας.
179
398
914
D
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
νοιαν καὶ μὴ τοσοῦτον εἰς τὴν προσευχὴν τὰς
χεῖρας ἀνατείνειν τολμᾶν, τοὺς δὲ πανταχόθεν
ἔχοντας τὸ ἀμέριμνον ολοκλήρῳ ψυχῇ χαίροντας
ὑπὲρ τοῦ βασιλείου ἱκετηρίους λατρείας ποιεῖσθαι
τῷ μείζονι, τῷ δυναμένῳ κατευθῦναι τὴν βασιλείαν
ἡμῶν ἐπὶ τὰ κάλλιστα, καθάπερ προαιρούμεθα.
ὅπερ χρὴ ποιεῖν ὑμᾶς, ἵνα κἀγὼ τὸν τῶν Περσῶν
πόλεμον διορθωσάμενος ' τὴν ἐκ πολλῶν ἐτῶν ἐπι-
θυμουμένην παρ᾽ ὑμῶν ἰδεῖν οἰκουμένην πόλιν
ἁγίαν ᾿Ιερουσαλὴμ ἐμοῖς καμάτοις ἀνοικοδομήσας
οἰκίσω καὶ ἐν αὐτῇ δόξαν δῶ μεθ᾽ ὑμῶν τῷ κρείτ-
TOL.
52
Λιβανίῳ 5
"Evesd) τῆς ὑποσχέσεως ἐπελάθου" τρίτη γοῦν
ἐστὶ σήμερον, καὶ ὁ φιλόσοφος Πρίσκος αὐτὸς
μὲν οὐχ ἧκε, γράμματα δ᾽ ἀπέστειλεν ὡς ἔτι
χρονίζων" ὃ ὑπομιμνήσκω σε τὸ χρέος ἀπαιτῶν.
ὄφλημα δέ ἐστιν, ὡς οἶσθα, σοὶ μὲν ἀποδοῦναι
ῥάδιον, ἐμοὶ δὲ ἥδιστον πάνυ κομίσασθαι. πέμπε
δὴ τὸν λόγον καὶ τὴν ἱερὰν συμβουλήν, ἀλλὰ
πρὸς “Ἑρμοῦ καὶ Μουσῶν ταχέως, ἐπεὶ καὶ τούτων
με τῶν τριῶν ἡμερῶν ἴσθι συντρίψας, εἴπερ
ἀληθῆ φησιν ὁ Σικελιώτης ποιητής, ἐν ἤματι
φάσκων τοὺς ποθοῦντας γηράσκειν. εἰ δὲ ταῦτα
1 Asmus would read κατορϑωσάμενος.
* Hertlein 3. σοφιστῇ καὶ κοιαίστωρι (quaestor) is added to
the title in one MS., X; cf. p. 201. 3 Cobet χρονιῶν.
* For Julian’s project of rebuilding the Temple, see
Introduction.
180
TO LIBANIUS
in spirit, and should not have so much confidence in
raising their hands to pray; but that those who are
-in all respects free from care should rejoice with
their whole hearts and offer their suppliant prayers
on behalf of my imperial office to Mighty God, even
to him who is able to direct my reign to the noblest
ends, according to my purpose. This you ought to
do, in order that, when I have successfully con-
cluded the war with Persia, I may rebuild by my
own efforts the sacred city of Jerusalem,! which for
so many years you have longed to see inhabited,
and may bring settlers there, and, together with
you, may glorify the Most High God therein.
52
To Libanius?
Since you have forgotten your promise—at any
rate three days have gone by and the philosopher
Priscus*® has not come himself but has sent a letter
to say that he still delays—I remind you of your
debt by demanding payment. The thing you owe
is, as you know, easy for you to pay and very pleasant
for me to receive, So send your discourse and your
“divine counsel,” and do it promptly, in the name
of Hermes and the Muses, for I assure you, in these
three days you have worn me out, if indeed the
Sicilian poet 4 speaks the truth when he says, “‘ Those
who long grow old inaday.” And if this be true,
2 Both Libanius and Julian were at this time at Antioch.
We have the answer to this letter, Libanius, Letter 760
Foerster ; Libanius had promised to send Julian his speech,
Four Aristophanes, Oration 14, for which see below, p. 183.
3. For Priscus, see above, pp. 3, 15.
4 Theocritus, 12. 2 of δὲ ποθεῦντες ἐν ἤματι γηράσκονσιν.
181
862
Winter
At
Antioch
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
ἔστιν, ὥσπερ οὖν ἔστι, TO γῆρας ἡμῖν ἐτριπλα-
σίασας, ὦ γενναῖε. ταῦτα μεταξὺ τοῦ πράττειν
ὑπηγόρευσά σοι" γράφειν γὰρ οὐχ οἷός τε ἦν,
ἀργοτέραν ἔχων τῆς γλώττης τὴν χεῖρα. καίτοι
μοι καὶ τὴν γλῶτταν εἶναι συμβέβηκεν ὑπὸ τῆς
ἀνασκησίας ἀργοτέραν καὶ ἀδιάρθρωτον. ἔρρωσό
μοι, ἀδελφὲ ποθεινότατε καὶ προσφιλέστατε.
53
AtBavig !
᾿Αποδέδωκας ᾿Αριστοφάνει τὰς ἀμοιβὰς τῆς
τε περὶ τοὺς θεοὺς εὐσεβείας καὶ τῆς περὶ σεαυτὸν
προθυμίας, ἀμείψας αὐτῷ καὶ i μεταθεὶς τὰ πρόσθεν
ἐπονείδιστα πρὸς εὔκλειαν, οὐ τὴν νῦν μόνον,
ἀλλὰ καὶ εἰς τὸν ἔπειτα χρόνον, ὡς οὐχ ὅμοιόν γε
ἡ Παύλου συκοφαντία καὶ ἡ τοῦ δεῖνος κρίσις
τοῖς ὑπὸ σοῦ “γραφομένοις λόγοις: ἐκεῖνα μὲν γὰρ
ἀνθοῦντά τε ἐμισεῖτο καὶ συναπέσβη τοῖς δράσα-
σιν, οἱ δὲ σοὶ λόγοι καὶ νῦν ὑπὸ τῶν ἀληθῶς
Ἑλλήνων a ἀγαπῶνται, καὶ εἰς τὸν ἔπειτα χρόνον,
εἰ μή TL σφάλλομαι κρίσεως ὀρθῆς, ἀγαπήσονται.
πεύσῃ δὴ λοιπὸν εἰ πέπεικάς με, μᾶλλον δὲ
μεταπέπεικας ὑπὲρ ᾿Αριστοφάνους. μὴ νομίζειν
αὐτὸν ἡδονῶν ἥ ἥττονα καὶ χρημάτων ὁμολογώ. τί
δὲ οὐ μέλλω τῷ φιλοσοφωτάτῳ καὶ φιχαληθε-
1 Hertlein 74 + 14; Cumont, following Vaticanus 941 and
certain other MSS., restored Hertlein 14 to its proper place
as postscript to Hertlein 74.
1 Plato, Phaedrus 242k εἰ δ᾽ ἐστίν, & ὥσπερ οὖν ἐστί, θεός... τὰ
* Sophocles, Philoctetes 97 γλῶσσαν μὲν ἀργόν, χείρα δ᾽ εἶχον
ἐργάτιν.
182
TO LIBANIUS
as in fact it 15,1 you have trebled my age, my good
friend. I have dictated this to you in the midst of
public business, For I was not able to write myself
because my hand is lazier than my tongue.2_ Though
indeed my tongue also has come to be somewhat
lazy and inarticulate from lack of exercise. Fare-
well, brother, most dear and most beloved !
53
To Libanius
You have requited Aristophanes® for his piety
towards the gods and his devotion to yourself by
changing and transforming what was formerly a
reproach against him so that it redounds to his
honour, and not for to-day only but for the future
also, since the malicious charges of Paul* and the
verdict of So-and-so® have no foree compared with
words written by you. For their calumnies were
detested even while they flourished, and perished
along with their perpetrators, whereas your speeches
are not only prized by genuine Hellenes to-day but
will still be prized in future times, unless I am mis-
taken in my verdict. For the rest, you shall judge
whether you have convinced, or rather converted,
me on behalf of Aristophanes. I now agree not to
believe that he is too weak to resist pleasure and
money. What point would I not yield to the most
8 For Aristophanes of Corinth and for the answer of
Libanius, Letter 758, Foerster, see Introduction, Aristophanes.
4 Paul, the notary nicknamed Catena, “Ὁ the chain,” a tool
of Constantius, was burned alive on Julian’s accession, by
order of the Chalcedon Commission ἢ Ammianus 14, 5. 6; 22.
3. 11. He was a Spaniard, malevolent and inquisitorial.
5 The real name is suppressed, probably by a cautious
editor when the letter was first published.
183
362
Winter
A
t
Antioch
382
88
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
στάτῳ τῶν ' ῥητόρων εἴκειν ; ἕπεται Kal TO ἐπὶ
τούτοις παρὰ σοῦ προσανερωτᾶσθαι" τί οὖν οὐ
μετατίθεμεν αὐτῷ τὰς συμφορὰς εἰς ἀμείνω τύχην
καὶ ἀφανίζομεν τὰ κατασχόντα διὰ τὰς δυσπρα-
γίας ὀνείδη; σύν τε δύ᾽ ἐρχομένω, φασίν, ἐγὼ
καὶ σὺ βουλευσώμεθα. δίκαιος δὲ εἶ μὴ συμ-
βουλεύειν μόνον, ὅτι χρὴ βοηθεῖν ἀνδρὶ τοὺς θεοὺς
ἀδόλως τετιμηκότι, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὃν χρὴ τρόπον.
καίτοι Kal? τοῦτο ἠνίξω τρόπον τινά. βέλτιον
δὲ ἴσως ὑπὲρ τῶν τοιούτων οὐ γράφειν, ἀλλὰ
διαλέγεσθαι πρὸς ἀλλήλους. ἔρρωσό μοι, ἀδελφὲ
ποθεινότατε καὶ προσφιλέστατε.
> / \3 \ \ r \ {Ae
Avéyvav δὲ" χθὲς τὸν λόγον πρὸ ἀρίστου
σχεδόν, ἀριστήσας δὲ, πρὶν ἀναπαύσασθαι, τὸ
λοιπὸν προσαπέδωκα τῆς ἀναγνώσεως. μακάριος
εἶ λέγειν οὕτω, μᾶλλον δὲ φρονεῖν οὕτω δυνάμενος.
ὦ λόγος, ὦ φρένες, ὦ σύνεσις," ὦ διαίρεσις, ὦ ἐπι-
χειρήματα, ὦ τάξις, ὦ ἀφορμαί, ὦ λέξις, ὦ ἁρμο-
νία, ὦ συνθήκη.
54
Εὐστοχίῳ ὃ .
ἐ
¢ U a al a a
Ησιόδῳ μὲν δοκεῖ τῷ σοφῷ καλεῖν ἐπὶ τὰς
\ /
ἑορτὰς τοὺς γείτονας ws συνησθησομένους, ἐπειδὴ
1 τῶν Hercher supplies, Cumont omits.
* Before τοῦτο Cumont restores καὶ omitted by Hertlein
and some MSS.
8. δὲ Cumont restores, omitted by Hertlein following MSS.,
which make this section a separate letter. After χθὲς
Hercher supplied σοῦ unnecessarily.
4 σύνεσις Asmus following Monacensis, σύνθεσις Hertlein
following Vossianus, but cf. συνθήκη at end of letter with
same meaning. Both readings have good MS. authority,
δ Hertlein 20, .
184
TO EUSTOCHIUS
philosophic and truth-loving of orators? Naturally
you will proceed to ask me why, in that case, I do
not alter his unhappy lot for the better and blot out
the disgrace that attaches to him on account of his
ill fortune. “'Two walking together,’! as the
proverb says, namely, you and I, must take counsel.
And you have the right, not only to advise that we
ought to assist a man who has honoured the gods so
straightforwardly, but also as to how it ought to be
done. Indeed, you did hint at this in an obscure
way. But it is perhaps better not to write about
such matters, but to talk it over together. Farewell,
brother, most dear and most beloved !
I read yesterday almost all your speech before
breakfast, and after breakfast, before resting, I gave
myself up to reading the remainder. Happy man
to be able to speak so well, or rather to have such
ideas! O what a discourse! what wit! what
wisdom! what analysis! what logic! what method !
what openings! what diction! what symmetry!
what structure ! 5
54
To Eustochius ὃ
Tue wise Hesiod* thinks that we ought to invite
our neighbours to our feasts that they may rejoice
1 Iliad 10. 224 σύν τε δύ' ἐρχομένω, Kal τε πρὸ ὃ τοῦ ἐνόησεν,
cf. Plato, Symposiwm 1740.
* Julian may have read Marcus Aurelius, 70. Fronto:
O ἐπιχειρήματα ' O τάξις ! O argutiae ! O ἄσκησις ! Ὁ omnia !
8 This is either Eustochius of Palestine, whose knowledge
of law and eloquence is praised by Libanius, Letter 699 (789
Foerster), or a sophist of Cappadocia of the same name.
We do not know which of these men it was to whom Gregory
Nazianzen addressed his Letters 189-191.
4 τὸν δὲ μάλιστα καλεῖν bs τις σεθεν ἐγγύθι ναίει ; Works and
Days 818, a favourite quotation,
185
Late in
362
From
Antioch
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
καὶ συναλγοῦσι καὶ συναγωνιῶσιν, ὅταν τις
ἀπροσδόκητος ἐμπέσῃ ταραχή. ἐγὼ δέ φημι
τοὺς φίλους δεῖν καλεῖν, οὐχὶ τοὺς γείτονας" τὸ
αἴτιον δέ, ὅτι γείτονα μὲν ἔνεστιν ἐχθρὸν ἔ ἔχειν,
φίλον δὲ ἐχθρὸν οὐ μᾶλλον ἢ τὸ λευκὸν μέλαν
εἶναι καὶ τὸ θερμὸν ψυχρόν. ὅτι δὲ ἡμῖν οὐ νῦν
μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πάλαι φίλος εἶ καὶ διετέλεσας
εὐνοϊκῶς ἔχων, εἰ καὶ μηδὲν ὑπῆρχεν ἄλλο τεκ-
μήριον, ἀλλὰ τό γε ἡμᾶς οὕτω διατεθεῖσθαι καὶ
διακεῖσθαι! περὶ σὲ μέγα ἂν εἴη τούτου σημεῖον.
ἧκε τοίνυν μεθέξων τῆς ὑπατείας αὐτός. ἄξει δέ
σε ὁ δημόσιος δρόμος ὀχήματι χρώμενον ἑνὶ καὶ
παρίππῳ." εἰ δὲ χρή τι καὶ ἐπεύξασθαι, τὴν
Ἐνοδίαν εὐμενῆ σοι καὶ τὸν ᾿Ενόδιον παρα-
κεκλήκαμεν. :
55
Iuiranus® etenim Christo perfidus Imperator sic
Photino haeresiarchae adversus Diodorum _ scribit :
1 καὶ διακεῖσθαι bracketed by Hertlein, Cobet deletes.
2 ἑνὶ παρίππῳ Hercher ; some MSS. ἐνὶ καὶ παρίππῳ, others,
followed by Hertlein, omit ἑνί.
3. Hertlein79. These fragments of a lost letter are preserved
only in the Latin version of Facundus Hermianensis, who
wrote at Constantinople about 546 a.p. For a partial recon-
struction of the original see Neumann, Contra Christianos,
Leipzig, 1880, p 5.
1 Julian, with Sallustins as colleague, entered on the
consulship January Ist, 363.
2 Hecate, Latin Trivia. 3 Hermes.
* This letter may have been written at any time between
186
TO PHOTINUS
with us, since they sorrow and mourn with us when
any unexpected misfortune befals us. But I say
that it is our friends that we ought to invite, rather
than our neighbours; and for this reason, that it is
possible to have a neighbour who is one’s enemy,
but that a friend should be an enemy is no more
possible than for white to be black, or hot cold.
And if there were no other proof that you are my
friend not now only, but for a long time past, and
that you have steadily maintained your regard for
me, nevertheless the fact that my feeling for you
has been and is what it is, would be strong evidence
of that friendship. Come, therefore, that you may
in person share my consulship.t The state post
will bring you, and you may use one carriage and
an extra horse. And in case we ought to pray for
further aid, I have invoked for you the blessing of the
goddess of the Crossroads? and the god of the
Ways.®
55
To Photinus 4
Morrover the Emperor Julian, faithless to Christ, in
his attack on Diodorus® writes as follows to Photinus the
Julian’s arrival at Antioch in July 362 and his departure
thence, in March 363. The Greek original is represented
by curious and sometimes untranslatable Latin. Photinus,
bishop of Sirmium, where Constantius resided in 351, was
tried, deposed and banished by a synod convened there hy
Constantius. According to Sozomen 4. 6, he wrote many
yreek and Latin works in support of his heretical views on
the divinity of Christ, which were opposed by both Arians and
Nicaeans. He is mentioned by Julian, Against the Galilacans
262c.
5 Bishop of Tarsus, a celebrated teacher ; he was at Antioch
in 362.
187
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
Tu quidem, o Photine, verisimilis videris, et proximus
salvari,! benefaciens nequaquam in utero inducere
quem credidisti deum. Diodorus autem Nazaraei
magus, eius pigmentalibus manganis? acuens irra-
tionabilitatem, acutus apparuit sophista religionis
agrestis. Et post paululum: Quod si nobis opitulati
fuerint dii et deae et musae omnes et fortuna,
ostendemus infirmum et corruptorem legum et
rationum et mysteriorum paganorum et deorum
infernorum 8 et illum novum eius deum Galilaeum,
quem aeternum fabulose praedicat,* indigna morte
et sepultura denudatum confictae a Diodoro deitatis.
Sicut autem solent errantes convictt jfingere, quod arte
magis quam veritate vincantur, sequitur dicens: Iste
enim malo communis utilitatis Athenas navigans et
philosophans imprudenter musicarum_ participatus
est rationum, et rhetoricis confictionibus® odibilem
adarmavit linguam adversus caelestes deos, usque
adeo ignorans paganorum mysteria, omnemque mise-
rabiliter imbibens, ut aiunt, degenerum et impe-
ritorum ejus theologorum piscatorum errorem.
Propter quod iam diu est quod ab ipsis punitur
diis. Jam enim per multos annos in periculum
conversus et in corruptionem thoracis incidens, ad
1 salrari Neumann ; salvare Facundus, Hertlein.
2 manganis Neumann ; manyanes Facundus, Hertlein.
3. infernorum, Hertlein, comma deleted by Neumann.
4 praedicat, sepultura Neumann; pracdicat—sepultura
Facundus, Hertlein. Before indigna Asmus supplies et.
δ᾽ rhetoricis confictionibus Asmus; rhetoris confectionibus
Facundus, Hertlein,
188
TO PHOTINUS
heresiarch: + O Photinus, you at any rate seem to
maintain what is probably true, and come nearest to
being saved, and do well to believe that he whom
one holds to be a god can by no means be brought
into the womb. But Diodorus, a charlatan priest of the
Nazarene, when he tries to give point to that nonsen-
sical theory about the womb by artifices and juggler’s
tricks, is clearly a sharp-witted sophist of that creed
of the country-folk. A little further on he says: But
if only the gods and goddesses and all the Muses
and Fortune will lend me their aid, I hope to show ?
that he is feeble and a corrupter of laws and customs,
of pagan ὃ Mysteries and Mysteries of the gods of the
underworld, and that that new-fangled Galilaean
god of his, whom he by a false myth styles eternal, has
been stripped by his humiliating death and burial of
the divinity falsely ascribed to him by Diodorus. Then,
just as people who are convicted of error always begin to
invent, being the slaves of artifice rather than of truth, he
goes on to say: For the fellow sailed to Athens to the
injury of the general welfare, then rashly took to
philosophy and engaged in the study of literature,
and by the devices of rhetoric armed his hateful
tongue against the heavenly gods, and being utterly
ignorant of the Mysteries of the pagans he so to speak
imbibed most deplorably the whole mistaken folly of
the base and ignorant creed-making fishermen. For
this conduct he has long ago been punished by the
gods themselves. For, for many years past, he has
been in danger, having contracted a wasting disease
1 The italicised passages are the words of Facundus.
2 This isa forecast of Julian’s treatise Against the Galilaeans.
3 Twice in this letter Facundus translates Julian’s
“Ὁ Hellenic” as ‘* pagan,”
189
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
summum pervenit supplicium. Omne eius corpus
consumptum est. Nam malae eius conciderunt,
rugae vero in altitudinem corporis descenderunt.
Quod non est philosophicae conversationis indicio,
sicut videri vult a se deceptis, sed iustitiae pro certo
deorumque poenae, qua percutitur competenti ratione,
usque ad novissimum vitae suae finem asperam et
amaram vitam vivens et faciem pallore confectam.
56
Χρῆν 1 μὲν οἴκοθεν διανοηθέντα ὃ δὴ νῦν ἔδοξε
κρατῦναι τῷ νόμῳ, τὸ παλαιὸν ἔθος ἀναλαβεῖν, ὃ
διανοούμενοι μὲν οἱ πάλαι καλῶς θέμενοι τοὺς
νόμους, εἶναι πλεῖστον ὑπέλαβον ἐν μέσῳ ζωῆς τε
καὶ θανάτου, ἰδίᾳ δὲ ἑκατέρῳ πρέπειν ἐνόμισαν
τὰ ἐπιτηδεύματα τῶν ἔργων. εἶναι μὲν γὰρ τὸν
θάνατον ἡσυχίαν διηνεκῆ---καὶ τοῦτο ἄρα ἐστὶν ὁ
χαλκοῦς ὕπνος ὁ ὑπὸ τῶν ποιητῶν ὑμνούμενος---,
ἀπεναντίας δὲ τὴν ζωὴν ἔχειν πολλὰ μὲν ἀλγεινὰ
πολλὰ δὲ ἡδέα, καὶ τὸ πράττειν νῦν μὲν ἑτέρως,
αὖθις δὲ ἄμεινον. ὃ δὴ διανοηθέντες ἔταξαν ἰδίᾳ
1 Hertlein 77. This edict, which has no Greek title, does
not appear in any MS. collection of the Letters and was first
published by Hertlein (from Marcianus 366) in Hermes 8.
1 Here and in the last sentence 1 give what seems to be
the general meaning.
2 This is probably the earlier form of the Latin Edict in
Codex Theodosianus 9. 17.5 dated February 12th, 363. It is
not clear whether it was aimed at the Christians, but of course
Igo
EDICT ON FUNERALS
of the chest, and he now suffers extreme torture.
His whole body has wasted away. For his cheeks
have fallen in and his body is deeply lined with
wrinkles.1 But this is no sign of philosophic habits, as
he wishes it to seem to those who are deceived by him,
but most certainly a sign of justice done and of
punishment from the gods which has stricken him
down in suitable proportion to his crime, since he
must live out to the very end his painful and bitter
- life, his appearance that of a man pale and wasted.
56
Edict on Funerals 3
Ir was my duty, after considering with myself, to
restore the ancient custom which I have now decided
to confirm by a law. For when they considered the
matter, the men of old, who made wise laws, believed
that there is the greatest possible difference between
life and death and thought that each of these two
states has customs and practices peculiarly appropriate
toit. For they thought that death is an unbroken rest,
—and this is surely that “brazen sleep” of which
the poets sing,?—but that life, on the contrary, brings
many pains and many pleasures, and now adversity,
now greater prosperity. Considering thus, they en-
they had to observe it. They buried their dead by day, and
did not share the pagan fear of pollution by a corpse, for
which cf. Eunapius, Life of Jamblichus, p. 367, Wright.
Julian desired to suppress the Christian demonstrations at
public funerals such as that of the bones of St. Babylas, at
Antioch, for which see Philostorgius 7. 8, Sozomen 5, 19,
Julian, Afisopogon 3618, note, p. 485, Wright.
8 Iliad 11. 241, χάλκεον ὕπνον ; Vergil, Aeneid 10. 745
ferreus Somnus.
-
89
303
About
Febru-
ary 12th
From
Antioch
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
μὲν ἀφοσιοῦσθαι τὰ πρὸς τοὺς κατοιχομένους,
ἰδίᾳ δὲ τὰ πρὸς τὸν καθ᾽ ἡμέραν οἰκονομεῖσθαι
βίον. ἔτι δὲ πάντων ὑπελάμβανον ἀρχὴν εἶναι
καὶ τέλος τοὺς θεούς, ζῶντάς τε ἡμᾶς ἐνόμισαν
ὑπὸ θεοῖς εἶναι καὶ ἀπιόντας πάλιν πρὸς τοὺς
θεοὺς πορεύεσθαι. τὸ μὲν οὖν ὑπὲρ τούτων λέγειν,
εἴτε τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἀμφότερα προσήκει θεοῖς, εἴτε
ἕτεροι μὲν ἐπιτροπεύουσι τοὺς ζῶντας, ἕτεροι δὲ
τοὺς τεθνεῶτας, οὐδ᾽ ἄξιον ἴσως δημοσιεύειν. εἴ
γε μὴν καθάπερ ἡμέρας καὶ νυκτὸς αἴτιος ἥλιος
καὶ χειμῶνος καὶ θέρους ἀπιὼν καὶ προσιών,
οὕτω δὲ καὶ αὐτῶν τῶν θεῶν ὁ πρεσβύτατος, εἰς
ὃν πάντα καὶ ἐξ οὗ πάντα, ζῶσί τε ἔταξεν ἄρχον-
τᾶς καὶ τελευτήσασιν ἀπεκλήρωσε κυρίους,
ἑκατέρῳ τὰ πρέποντα χρὴ νέμειν ἐν μέρει, καὶ
μιμεῖσθαι διὰ τοῦ καθ᾽ ἡμέραν βίου τὴν ἐν τοῖς
οὖσι τῶν θεῶν διακόσμησιν.
Οὐκοῦν ἡ ἡσυχία μὲν ὁ θάνατός ἐστιν, ἡσυχίᾳ δὲ
ἡ νὺξ ἁρμόττει. διόπερ οἶμαι πρέπειν ἐν αὐτῇ τὰ
mepl Tas ταφὰς πραγματεύεσθαι τῶν τελευτη-
σάντων, ἐπεὶ τό γε ἐν ἡμέρᾳ πράττειν τι τοιοῦτο
πολλῶν ἕνεκα παραιτητέον. ἄλλος ἐπ᾽ ἄλλῃ
πράξει “στρέφεται κατὰ τὴν πόλιν, καὶ μεστὰ
πάντα ἐστὶ τῶν μὲν εἰς δικαστήρια πορευομένων
τῶν δὲ εἰς ἀγορὰν καὶ ἐξ ἀγορᾶς, τῶν δὲ ταῖς
τέχναις προσκαθημένων, τῶν δὲ ἐπὶ τὰ ἱερὰ
φοιτώντων, ὅπως τὰς ἀγαθὰς ἐλπίδας Tapa τῶν
θεῶν βεβαιώσαιντο' εἶτα οὐκ οἶδα οἵτινες ἀνα-
θέντες ἐν κλίνῃ νεκρὸν διὰ μέσων ὠθοῦνται τῶν
ταῦτα σπουδαξόντων. καὶ τὸ πρᾶγμά ἐστι πάντα
τρόπον οὐκ ἀνεκτόν. ἀναπίμπλανται γὰρ οἱ
102
EDICT ON FUNERALS
joined that expiations connected with the departed
should be conducted apart, and that apart from them
the daily business of life should be carried on. More-
over, they held that the gods are the beginning and end
of all things, and believed that while we live we are
subject to the gods, and when we depart from this life
we travel back to the gods. But perhaps it is not right
to speak openly about these matters or to divulge
whether both are in the hands of the same gods or
one set of gods has charge of the living and another
set the dead. However, if, as the Sun is the cause
of day and night and winter and summer by his
departure and arrival, so also the most venerable one
of the gods themselves, unto whom are all things and
from whom all things proceed, has appointed rulers
over the living and allotted lords over the dead, then
we ought to assign to both of these classes in turn
what is fitting for them, and to imitate in our daily
life the orderly arrangement of the gods in things
which exist.
As I have said, death is rest ; and night harmonises
with rest. Therefore I think it is fitting that business
connected with the burials of the dead should be
performed at night, since for many reasons we ought
to forbid anything of the sort to go on by day.
Throughout the city men are going to and fro each—
on his own business, and all the streets are full of
men going to the lawcourts, or to or from the
market, or sitting at work at their crafts, or visiting
the temples to confirm the good hopes that the gods
have vouchsafed. And then some persons or other,
having laid a corpse on the bier, push their way into
the midst of those who are busy about such matters.
The thing is in every way intolerable. For those
| 193
VOL, ΠΙ. oO
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
/ / > 7 ς Ν. bd
προστυχόντες “πολλάκις, ἀηδίας, Ol μὲν οἰόμενοι
πονηρὸν τὸ οἰώνισμα, τοῖς δὲ εἰς ἱερὰ βαδίζουσιν
οὐ θέμις προσελθεῖν ἐστι πρὶν ἀπολούσασθαι.
τοῖς γὰρ αἰτίοις τοῦ ζῆν θεοῖς καὶ μάλιστα πάντων
ἀλλοτριώτατα πρὸς φθορὰν διακειμένοις οὐ θέμις
προσελθεῖν ἀπὸ τοιαύτης ὄψεως. καὶ οὔπω τὰ
μείζω κατηγόρηκα τοῦ γιγνομένου. τίνα δὲ ταῦτά
ἐστιν; ἱεροὶ περίβολοι καὶ θεῶν ναοὶ ἀνεῴγασι"
καὶ πολλάκις θύει τις ἔνδον καὶ σπένδει καὶ
εὔχεται, οἱ δὲ παρέρχονται παρ᾽ αὐτὸ τὸ ἱερὸν
νεκρὸν κομίζοντες, καὶ ἡ τῶν ὀδυρμῶν φωνὴ καὶ
δυσφημία ἄχρι Tov βωμῶν φέρεται.
Οὐκ ἴστε ὅτι πρὸ πάντων τῶν ἄλλων τὰ τῆς
ἡμέρας καὶ τὰ τῆς νυκτὸς ἔργα διήρηται ; οὕτως ὦ
οὖν εἰκότως τῆς μὲν ἀφηρέθη, τῇ δὲ Av” ἀνακέοιτο.
οὐ γὰρ δὴ τῆς ἐσθῆτος τὴν λευκὴν ἐπὶ τοῖς
πένθεσιν ὀρθῶς ἔχον ἐστὶ παραιτεῖσθαι, θάπτειν
δὲ τοὺς τελευτήσαντας ἐν ἡμέρᾳ καὶ φωτί. βέλτιον
ἣν ἐκεῖνο, εἴ γε εἰς οὐδένα τῶν θεῶν ἐπλημμελεῖτο,
τοῦτο δὲ οὐκ ἐκφεύγει τὸ μὴ εἰς ἅπαντας τοὺς
θεοὺς εἶναι δυσσέβειαν. τοῖς τε yap ᾿Ολυμπίοις
οὐ δέον αὐτὸ προσνέμουσι, καὶ τῶν χθονίων, ἢ
ὁπωσοῦν ἄλλως οἱ τῶν ψυχῶν ἐπίτροποι καὶ
κύριοι χαίρουσιν ὀνομαζόμενοι, παρὰ τὸ δέον
ἀλλοτριοῦσιν. ἐγὼ δὲ οἶδα καὶ τοὺς περιττοὺς
καὶ ἀκριβεῖς τὰ θεῖα θεοῖς τοῖς κάτω νύκτωρ ἢ
πάντως μετὰ δεκάτην ἡμέρας ὥραν ἱερὰ δρᾶν
ἀξιοῦντας. εἰ δὲ τῆς ἐκείνων θεραπείας οὗτος
1 οὕτως---τῆς Hertlein suggests for corrupt οὗτοΞ---- τοῖς.
8 cod A > , Ῥ cal s
2 ty Hertlein suggests; τῇ δὲ ἀνήκει τοῦτο ‘‘appertains
to,” Capps suggests. ‘The sentence remains unsatisfactory.
’
194
EDICT ON FUNERALS
who meet the funeral are often filled with disgust,
some because they regard it as an evil omen, while
for others who are on the way to the temples it is
not permitted to approach for worship till they have
cleansed themselves from the pollution. For after
such a sight it is not permitted to approach the gods
who are the cause of life and of all things least akin
to decay. And I have still to mention what is worse
than this. And what is that? The sacred precincts
and temples of the gods lie open; and it often
happens that in one of them someone is sacrificing
or pouring libations or praying, at the moment
when men carrying a corpse are passing close
by the temple itself, and the voice of lamenta-
tions and speech of ill omen is carried even to the
altars.
Do you not understand that the functions belong-
ing to the day and the night have been separated
more than. all other things? With good reason,
therefore, has burial been taken out of the day and
would be reserved for the night. For it is not right
to deprecate the wearing of white for mourning and
yet to bury the dead in the daytime and sunlight.
The former was better, at least if it was not offensive
to any of the gods, but the latter cannot escape being
an act of impiety towards all the gods. For thereby
men wrongly assign burial to the Olympian gods and
wrongly alienate it from the gods of the underworld,
or whatever else the guardians and lords of souls
prefer to be called. And I know that those who are
thoroughly versed and punctilious in sacred rites
think it right to perform at night the ritual to the
gods below or in any case not till after the tenth
hour of the day. But if this is the better time for
195
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
ἀμείνων ὁ καιρός, οὐδὲ τῇ θεραπείᾳ πάντως τῶν.
τεθνεώτων ἕτερον ἀποδώσομεν.
Τοῖς μὲν οὖν ἑκοῦσι πειθομένοις ἐξαρκεῖ ταῦτα.
ἃ γὰρ ἡμάρτανον μαθόντες, μετατιθέσθων πρὸς
τὸ βέλτιον. εἰ δέ τις τοιοῦτός ἐστιν οἷος ἀπειλῆς
«αἱ ζημίας δεῖσθαι, ἴστω τὴν μεγίστην ὑφέξων
δίκην, εἰ πρὸ δεκάτης ἡμερινῆς ὥρας τολμήσει τε
τῶν ἀπογινομένων τινὸς κηδεῦσαι σῶμα καὶ διὰ
τῆς πόλεως ἐνεγκεῖν: ἀλλὰ δύντος ἡλίου καὶ αὖ
πρὶν ἀνίσχειν ταῦτα γενέσθω, ἡ δὲ ἡμέρα καθαρὰ
καθαροῖς τοῖς τε ἔργοις ' καὶ τοῖς ᾿Ολυμπίοις
ἀνακείσθω θεοῖς.
57
᾿Αρσάκῃ ᾿Αρμενίων catpatn*
᾿Επείχθητι πρὸς τὴν τῶν πολεμίων παράταξιν,
᾿Αρσάκιε, θᾶττον ἢ λόγος, τὴν δεξιὰν κατὰ τῆς
Περσικῆς μανίας ὁπλίσας. ἡ γὰρ ἡμετέρα παρα-
σκευή τε καὶ προθυμία δυοῖν θάτερον βεβούλευται,
ἢ τὸ χρεὼν ἀποδοῦναι ἐπὶ τῆς Παρθυαίων ἐνο-
ρίας τὰ μέγιστα διαπραξαμένους καὶ τὰ δεινό-
tata διαθεμένους τοὺς ἀντιπάλους, ἢ τούτους
χειρωσαμένους, πρυτανευόντων ἡμῖν τῶν θεῶν,
1 For τοῖς τε ἔργοις Hercher conjectures τοῖς ἱεροῖς. Before
τοῖς ᾿Ολυμπίοις Hertlein suspects the loss of τοῖς λόγοιξ.
* Hertlein 66; he regards the letter as spurious, and
brackets the title. Schwarz, Geffcken, and Cumont also
reject it.
3 eboplas Ambrosianus; ἐνορίας Monacensis; εὐοδίας Mura-
torius ; ἐφορίας Reiske.
196
TO ARSACES, SATRAP OF ARMENIA
the worship of these gods, we will certainly not
assign another time for the service of the dead.
What I have said suffices for those who are willing
to obey. For now that they. have learned what
errors they used to commit, let them change to the
better way. But if there be any man of such a
character that he needs threat and penalty, let him
know that he will incur the severest punishment if,
before the tenth hour of the day, he shall venture to
perform the offices for the corpse of any dead person
and to carry it through the city. But let these
things be done at sunset and before sunrise, and let
the pure day be consecrated for pure deeds and the
pure gods of Olympus.
57
To Arsaces, Satrap of Armenia 4
Make haste, Arsacius,? to meet the enemy’s battle :
line and quicker than 1 tell * you arm your right hand
against the madness of the Persians. For my
military preparations and my set purpose are for
one of two things ; either to pay the debt of nature
within the Parthian‘ frontier, after I have won the
most glorious victories and inflicted on my foes the
most terrible reverses, or to defeat them under the
leadership of the gods and return to my native land
1 See Introduction, under Arsaces.
2 This form is given also by Sozomen 6, 1. who gives the
general contents of the letter. The correct form Arsaces
occurs in Ammianus.
8 Cf. 70 Hermogenes, p. 32, 390 B παρὰ δύναμιν ἐπείχθητι.
4 The writer seems to confuse the Persians and the
Parthians: Julian, however, distinguishes them in Oration 2.
634, Vol. 1, p. 169, Wright ; Ammianus sometimes confuses
them,
197
At :
Antioch
Just
before
Julian's
Persian
cam-
paign
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
καλλινίκους ἐπανελθεῖν ἐπὶ τὴν ἐνεγκαμένην,
τρόπαια κατὰ τῶν “πολεμίων ἐγείραντας. πᾶσαν
οὖν ῥᾳστώνην καὶ φενακισμὸν ἀποθέμενος, καὶ
τὸν μακαρίτην Κωνσταντῖνον * καὶ τὰς τῶν
εὖ γεγονότων περιουσίας τὰς εἰς, σέ τε καὶ
τοὺς ὁμοτρόπους σοι βαρβάρους t ὑπὸ τοῦ ἁβροτά-
του καὶ πολυτελοῦς " Κωνσταντίου κενωθείσας,
νῦν μοι τὸν ᾿Ιουλιανόν, τὸν ἀρχιερέα, τὸν καίσαρα,
τὸν αὔγουστον, τὸν θεῶν τε καὶ ᾿Άρεως θεραπευ-
τὴν ἐννόησον, τὸν Φραγκῶν * Tre καὶ βαρβάρων
ὀλετῆρα, τὸν Γάλλων τε καὶ ᾿Ιταλῶν ἐλευθερωτήν.
εἰ δὲ ἕ ἕτερόν TL βουλεύσαιο' πυνθάνομαι “γὰρ εἶναί
σε πανοῦργον καὶ κακὸν ᾿ στρατιώτην καὶ ἀλαζόνα,
ὡς τὰ παρόντα μοι πράγματα δείκνυσιν" ἐχθρὸν
γάρ τινα τῆς κοινῆς λυσιτελείας λανθάνοντα
ἀποκρύπτειν παρὰ σοὶ πειρᾶσθαι: τέως μὲν τοῦτο
ὑπερτίθεμαι διὰ τὴν τοῦ πολέμου τύχην" ἀρκεῖ
γὰρ ἡμῖν ἡ τῶν θεῶν συμμαχία πρὸς τὴν τῶν
πολεμίων καθαίρεσιν. εἰ δέ τι τὰ τῆς εἱμαρμένης
κρίνειε' θεῶν γὰρ βούλησις ἡ ταύτης ἐξουσία.
ἀδεώς καὶ γενναίως οἴσω τοῦτο. ἴσθι δὲ ὡς σὺ
μὲν πάρεργον ἔσῃ τῆς Περσικῆς χειρός, συναφ-
θείσης σοι παγγενεὶ τῆς ἑστίας καὶ τῆς ᾿Α ρμενίων
ἀρχῆς" κοινωνήσει δέ σοι τῆς δυστυχίας καὶ ἡ
1 Wright restores Κωνσταντῖνον from Laurcniianus ; ἐκεῖνον
Hertlein foliowing Monacensis.
2 πολυετοῦς MSS. (Constantius died aged about 45);
Teuffel ἀσεβοῦς, cf. Sozomen 6. 1, who says that Julian in this
letter reviled Constantius ὡς ἀνάνδρῳ καὶ ἀσεβεῖ. Hertlein
πολυτελοῦς following Sintenis.
3 εὐνόησον Ambrosianus; εὐνόϊσον Muratorius,
* Julian uses the form Φράγγοι in Oration 1. 84 1).
198
TO ARSACES, SATRAP OF ARMENIA
as a conquering hero, after I have set up trophies of
the enemy’s defeat. Accordingly you must discard
all sloth and cheating, and the Emperor Constantine
of blessed memory, and the wealth of the nobles
which was lavished in vain on you and on barbarians
of your character by the most luxurious and extra-
vagant Constantius, and now I warn you, take heed
of me, Julian, supreme pontiff, Caesar, Augustus, the
servant of the gods and of Ares, the destroyer of
the Franks and barbarians,! the liberator of the
Gauls and of Italy. But if you form some other
design,—for I learn that you are a rascal? and
a coward in war and a boaster, as the present
condition of affairs proves; indeed I have heard
that you are secretly trying to conceal at your court
a certain enemy of the public “welfare,—for the
present I postpone this matter because of the
fortune of war; for my alliance with the gods is
enough to secure the destruction of the enemy.
But if Destiny should also play some part in the
decision,—for the purpose of the gods is her
opportunity,—I will endure it fearlessly and like a
brave man. Be assured that you will be an easy
victim 8 of the power of Persia when your hearth and
home, your whole race and the kingdom of Armenia
all blaze together. And the city of Nisibis ‘ also will
1 Cf. Ammianus 22. 5, of Julian: saepeque dictitabat
**audite me quem Alemanni audierunt et Franci.”
* Arsaces was almost certainly a Christian ; cf. Sozomen
6. 1.
8. For this phrase cf. Vol. 2. Caesars 326A πάρεργον...
τῆς ἐμαυτοῦ στρατηγίας.
4 After Julian’s death Nisibis reverted to the Persians ;
their king Sapor captured and killed Arsaces; Ammianus
27. 12,
199
399
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
“ “ a /
Νισιβίων πόλις, τῶν οὐρανίων θεῶν τοῦτο πάλαι
ἡμῖν προαγορευσάντων.
58
, al \ , 1
AtBaviw σοφιστῇ καὶ κοιαίστωρι
Μέχρι τῶν Λιτάρβων ἦλθον ἔστι δὲ κώμη
Χαλκίδος: καὶ ἐνέτυχον 65@ λείψανα ἐχούσῃ
χειμαδίων ᾿Αντιοχικῶν. ἣν δὲ αὐτῆς, οἶμαι, τὸ
μὲν τέλμα τὸ δὲ ὄρος, τραχεῖα δὲ πᾶσα, καὶ ἐνέ-
κειντο τῷ τέλματι., λίθοι ὥσπερ ἐπίτηδες ἐρριμ-
μένοις ἐοικότες, ὑπ᾽ οὐδεμιᾶς τέχνης συγκείμενοι,
ὃν τρόπον εἰώθασιν ἐν ταῖς ἄλλαις 3 πόλεσι τὰς
λεωφόρους οἱ ἐξοικοδομοῦντες ποιεῖν, ἀντὶ μὲν τῆς
κονίας πολὺν τὸν χοῦν ἐποικοδομοῦντες, πυκνοὺς
δὲ ὥσπερ ἐν τοίχῳ τιθέντες τοὺς λίθους. ἐπεὶ δὲ
διαβὰς μόλις ἦλθον εἰς τὸν πρῶτον σταθμόν,
ἐννέα που σχεδὸν ἦσαν ὧραι, καὶ ἐδεξάμην εἴσω
τῆς αὐλῆς τὸ πλεῖστον τῆς παρ᾽ ὑμῖν βουλῆς. ἃ
δὲ διελέχθημεν πρὸς ἀλλήλους, ἴσως ἐπύθου"
μάθοις δ᾽ ἂν καὶ ἡμῶν ἀκούσας, εἰ θεοὶ θέλοιεν.
᾿Απὸ τῶν Λιτάρβων εἰς τὴν Βέρροιαν ἐπορευό-
μην, καὶ ὁ Ζεὺς αἴσια πάντα ἐσήμηνεν, ἐναργῆ
δείξας τὴν διοσημείαν. ἐπιμείνας δὲ ἡμέραν ἐκεῖ
1 Hertlein 27.
2 ἄλλαις Hertlein suspects.
8 ὑποσκεδάννυντες Cumont, as more suitable in connection
with χοῦς = loose soil.
* διοσημείαν Asmus ; διοσημίαν Hertlein, MSS.
' Julian’s march is described by Ammianus 23. 2, to the
end of 24 ; he was a member of the expedition ; cf. Zosimus 8.
12-28 ; Cumont, Btudes Syriennes, Paris, 1917.
200
TO LIBANIUS, SOPHIST AND QUAESTOR
share in your misfortune, for this the heavenly gods
long since foretold to me.
58
To Libanius, Sophist and Quaestor ὦ
I rraveLtep as far as Litarbae,—it is a village of
Chaleis,x—and came on a road that still had the
remains of a winter camp of Antioch. The road, I
may say, was partly swamp, partly hill, but the
whole of it was rough, and in the swamp lay stones
which looked as though they had been thrown there
purposely, as they lay together without any art, after
the fashion followed also by those who build public
highways in cities and instead of cement make a
deep layer of soil and then lay the stones close
together as though they were making a boundary-
wall. When I had passed over this with some difficulty
and arrived at my first halting-place it was about the
ninth hour, and then I received at my headquarters
the greater part of your senate.2, You have perhaps
learned already what we said to one another, and, if
it be the will of heaven, you shall know it from my
own lips.
From Litarbae I proceeded to Beroea,® and there
Zeus by showing a manifest sign from heaven
declared all things to be auspicious.* I stayed there
* The Senators of Antioch followed Julian to plead for
the city, which had offended him; see Libanius, Oration 16. 1.
3 Aleppo.
4 Ammianus 23. 2 records certain fatal accidents at Hiera-
polis and Batnae which were regarded as of ill omen for the
campaign.
201
400
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
τὴν ἀκρόπολιν εἶδον, καὶ ἔθυσα τῷ Διὶ βασιλικῶς
ταῦρὸν λευκόν, διελέχθην δὲ ὀλίγα τῇ βουλῇ περὺ
θεοσεβείας. ἀλλὰ τοὺς λόγους ἐπήνουν μὲν
ἅπαντες, ἐπείσθησαν δὲ αὐτοῖς ὀλίγοι πάνυ, καὶ
οὗτοι οἱ καὶ πρὸ τῶν ἐμῶν λόγων ἐδόκουν ἔ ἔχειν
ὑγιῶς. εὐλαβοῦντο' δὲ ὥ ὥσπερ παρρησίας ἀποτρί-
ψασθαι τὴν αἰδῶ καὶ ἀποθέσθαι". περίεστι γάρ,
ὦ θεοί, τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἐπὶ μὲν τοῖς καλοῖς ἐρυ-
θριᾶν, ἀνδρείᾳ ψυχῆς καὶ εὐσεβείᾳ, καλλωπί-
εσθαι δὲ ὥσπερ τοῖς χειρίστοις, ἱεροσυλίᾳ καὶ
μαλακίᾳ γνώμης καὶ σώματος.
Ἔνθεν ὑποδέχονταί με Βάτναι, χωρίον οἷον
παρ᾽ ὑμῖν οὐκ εἶδον ἔξω τῆς Δάφνης, ἣ νῦν ἔοικε
ταῖς Barvais: ὡς τά γε πρὸ μικροῦ, σωζομένου
τοῦ νεὼ καὶ τοῦ ἀγάλματος, ὍὌσσῃ καὶ IInrio
καὶ ταῖς ᾽Ολύμπου κορυφαῖς καὶ τοῖς Θετταλικοῖς
Τέμπεσιν ἄγων ἐ ἐπίσης ἢ καὶ προτιμῶν ἁπάντων
ὁμοῦ τὴν Δάφνην οὐκ ἂν “αἰσχυνοίμην. ἀλλ᾽ ἐπὶ
μὲν τῇ Δάφνῃ γέγραπταί σοι λόγος, ὁποῖον ἄλλος
οὐδ᾽ ἂν εἷς τῶν οἱ νῦν Bporot εἰσι καὶ μάλα ἐπι-
χειρήσας καμεῖν ἐργάσαιτο, νομίζω δὲ καὶ τῶν
ἔμπροσθεν οὐ πολλοὺς πάνυ. τί οὖν ἐγὼ νῦν
ἐπιχειρῶ περὶ αὐτῆς γράφειν, οὕτω "λαμπρᾶς
μονῳδίας ὃ ἐπ᾽ αὐτῇ συγγεγραμμένης ; ὡς μήποτε
1 Cobet ; Hertlein, MSS. ἐλάβοντο.
2 ἱερὸν Διὸς ‘OAunetov καὶ ᾿Απόλλωνος Πυθίου τὸ χωρίον follows
in MSS., bracketed by Hertlein as a gloss ; Heyler retains,
3 Lacuna Hercher, Hertlein ; μονῳδίας Heyler.
1 The Emperors sacrificed white victims ; cf. Ammianus
25. 4, 17.
* Julian was at Batnae March 8th; a few days later he
halted at another Batnae, in Osroéne, bey ond the Euphrates.
202
TO LIBANIUS, SOPHIST AND QUAESTOR
for a day and saw the Acropolis and sacrificed to Zeus
in imperial fashion a white bull.1_ Also I conversed
briefly with the senate about the worship of the
gods. But though they all applauded my arguments
very few were converted by them, and these few were
men who even before I spoke seemed to me to hold
sound views. But they were cautious and would not
strip off and lay aside their modest reserve, as though
afraid of too frank speech. For it is the prevailing
habit of mankind, O ye gods, to blush for their noble
qualities, manliness of soul and piety, and to plume
themselves, as it were, on what is most depraved,
sacrilege and weakness of mind and body.
. Next, Batnae 3 entertained me, a place like nothing
that I have ever seen in your country, except
Daphne? ; but that is now very like Batnae, though
not long ago, while the temple and statue were still
unharmed,‘ 1 should not have hesitated to compare
Daphne with Ossa and Pelion or the peaks of
Olympus, or Thessalian Tempe, or even to have
preferred it to all of them put together. But you
have composed an oration® on Daphne such as no
other man “of such sort as mortals now are’ 6
could achieve, even though he used his utmost
energies on the task, yes, and I think not very
many of the ancient writers either. Why then
should I try to write about it now, when so brilliant
a monody has been composed in its honour? Would
3 A suburb of Antioch; cf. Asopogon 361; Ammianus
19. 12.19. The temple of Apollo was burned October 22nd,
362.
4 Cf. Misopogon 3468 ; Vol. 2, Wright.
5 We have the monody of Libanius, On the Temple of Apollo
at Daphne, Oration 60; ef. his Oration 11. 235.
ὁ Iliad δ. 304; Julian, Oration 6. 1914.
203
491
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
ὦφελε τοιοῦτον. αἵ γε μὴν Βάτναι' βαρβαρικὸν
ὄνομα τοῦτο" χωρίον ἐστὶν ᾿“Ελληνικόν, πρῶτον
μὲν ὅτι διὰ πάσης τῆς πέριξ χώρας ἀτμοὶ λιβανω-
τοῦ πανταχόθεν ἧσαν, ἱερεῖά τε ἐβλέπομεν εὐτρεπῆ
πανταχοῦ. τοῦτο μὲν οὗν εἰ καὶ λίαν ηὔφραινέ
με, θερμότερον ὅμως ἐδόκει καὶ τῆς εἰς τοὺς θεοὺς
εὐσεβείας ἀλλότριον. ἐκτὸς πάτου γὰρ εἶναι χρὴ
καὶ δρᾶσθαι καθ᾽ ἡσυχίαν, ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸ τοῦτο πορευο-
μένων, οὐκ ἐπ᾽ ἄλλο τι βαδιζόντων, τὰ πρὸς τοὺς
θεοὺς ἱερά τε καὶ ὅσια. τοῦτο μὲν οὖν ἴσως τεύξε-
ται τῆς ἁρμοζούσης ἐπιμελείας αὐτίκα.
Τὰς Βάτνας δὲ ἑώρων πεδίον λάσιον ἄλση κυπα-
ρίττων ἔχον νέων" καὶ ἦν ἐν ταύταις οὐδὲν γεράν-
ὃρυον οὐδὲ σαπρόν, ἀλλὰ ἐξ ἴσης ἅπαντα θάλλοντα
τῇ κόμῃ" καὶ τὰ βασίλεια πολυτελῆ μὲν ἥκιστα"
πηλοῦ γὰρ ἣν μόνον καὶ ξύλων οὐδὲν ποικίλον
ἔχοντα' κῆπον δὲ τοῦ μὲν ᾿Αλκίνου καταδεέστερον,
παραπλήσιον δὲ τῷ Λαέρτου, καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ μικρὸν
ἄλσος πάνυ, κυπαρίττων μεστόν, καὶ τῷ θριγκίῳ
δὲ πολλὰ τοιαῦτα παραπεφυτευμένα δένδρα στίχῳ
καὶ ἐφεξῆς. εἶτα τὸ μέσον πρασιαΐί, καὶ ἐν ταύταις
λάχανα καὶ δένδρα παντοίαν ὀπώραν φέροντα.
τί οὖν ἐνταῦθα ; ἔθυσα δείλης, εἶτ᾽ ὄρθρου βαθέος,
ὅπερ εἴωθα ποιεῖν ἐπιεικῶς ἑκάστης ἡμέρας. ἐπεὶ
δὲ ἣν καλὰ τὰ ἱερά, τῆς “lepas πόλεως εἰχόμεθα,
καὶ ὑπαντῶσιν ἡμῖν οἱ πολῖται, καὶ ὑποδέχεταί
1 “νος it maintained the pagan cults.
2 Odyssey 7. 112 foll., a favourite commonplace ; cf. Miso-
pogon 352A.
3 Odyssey 24. 245 foll.
4 Hierapolis is now Membej; Julian arrived there about
March 10th; it was the rendezvous for the Roman troops
204
TO LIBANIUS, SOPHIST AND QUAESTOR
that none had been needed! However, to return.
to Batnae. Its name is barbarous but the place is
Hellenic ;1 I say so because through all the country
round about the fumes of frankincense arose on all
sides, and I saw everywhere victims ready for,
sacrifice. But though this gave me very great
pleasure, nevertheless it looked to me like over-
heated zeal, and alien to proper reverence for the
gods. For things that are sacred to the gods and
holy ought to be away from the beaten track and
performed in peace and quiet, so that men may
resort thither to that end alone and not on the way
to some other business. But this matter will perhaps
before long receive the attention that is appropriate.
Batnae I saw to be a thickly wooded plain contain-
ing groves of young cypresses; and among these
there was no old or decaying trunk, but all alike
were in vigorous leafage. ‘The imperial lodging was
by no means sumptuous, for it was made only of
clay and logs and had no decorations; but its
garden, though inferior to that of Alcinous,? was
comparable to the garden of Laertes.? In it was ἃ
quite small grove full of cypresses and along the
wall many trees of this sort have been planted in a
row one after the other. Then in the middle were
beds, and in these, vegetables and trees bearing
fruits of all sorts. What did I do there, you ask?
I sacrificed in the evening and again at early dawn,
as I am in the habit of doing practically every day.
And since the omens were favourable, we kept on
to Hierapolis* where the inhabitants came to meet
for this campaign ; and was about twenty miles west of the
Kuphrates. Julian stayed there three days; Ammianus 23.
2. 6.
205
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
με ξένος, ὀφθεὶς μὲν ἄρτι, φιλούμενος δὲ ὑπ᾽ ἐμοῦ
πάλαι. τὴν δὲ αἰτίαν αὐτὸς μὲν εὖ οἶδα ὅτι
συνήδεις,1 ἐμοὶ δὲ ἡδὺ καὶ ἄλλως φράσαι" τὸ γὰρ
ἀεὶ περὶ αὐτῶν ἀκούειν καὶ λέγειν ἐστί μοι νέκταρ.
Ἰαμβλίχου τοῦ θειοτάτου τὸ θρέμμα Σώπατρος
ἐγένετο ὅ ὁ τούτου κηδεστής" ἐξίσου ἐμοὶ 8 yap τὸ
μὴ πάντα ἐκείνων τῶν ἀνδρῶν ἀγαπᾶν ἀδικημάτων
οὐδενὸς τῶν φαυλοτάτων ἔλαττον * εἶναι δοκεῖ.
πρόσεστι ταύτης αἰτία μείζων. ὑποδεξάμενος
γὰρ πολλάκις τόν τε ἀνεψιὸν τὸν ἐμὸν καὶ τὸν
ὁμοπάτριον ἀδελφὸν καὶ προτραπεὶς ὑπ᾽ αὐτῶν,
οἷα εἰκὸς, πολλάκις ἀποστῆναι τῆς εἰς τοὺς θεοὺς
εὐσεβείας, ὃ χαλεπόν ἐστιν, οὐκ ἐλήφθη τῇ νόσῳ.
Ταῦτα εἶχον ἀπὸ τῆς ‘lepas πόλεώς σοι γράφειν
ὑπὲρ τῶν ἐμαυτοῦ. τὰς δὲ στρατιωτικὰς ἢ πολι-
τικὰς οἰκονομίας αὐτὸν ἐχρῆν οἶμαι παρόντα
ἐφορᾶν καὶ ἐπιμελεῖσθαι: μεῖζον γάρ ἐστιν ἢ κατ᾽
ἐπιστολήν, εὖ ἴσθι, καὶ τοσοῦτον ὅσον οὐ ῥάδιον
οὐδὲ τριπλασίᾳ ταύτης περιλαβεῖν σκοποῦντι
τἀκριβές. ἐπὶ κεφαλαίου δέ σοι καὶ ταῦτα
φράσω δι’ ὀλίγων. πρὸς τοὺς Σαρακηνοὺς ἔπεμψα
1 συνήδεις Reiske, συνείδεις MSS. εὖ οἶδ᾽ ὅτι συνείρεις Bidez,
οἵ, αἰτίαν αἰτίᾳ συνείρων ΞΞ make the connection. Ἠδυ οὶ
omits εὖ by an oversight. 2 ἐγένετο Bidez adds.
3 κηδεστής: ἐξίσου ἐμοὶ Bidez; κηδεστὴς ἐξ ὅσου: MSS.,
Hertlein ; Reiske thinks ἐξ ὅσου conceals a proper name or ἃ
lacuna.
4 οὐδενὺς τῶν φαυλοτάτων ἔλαττον Wright (cf. Oration
3. 102 B); οὐδενὸς ἧττον τῶν φαυλοτάτων Reiske ; οὐδὲν οὕτω
φαυλότατον MSS., Hertlein.
5 Frederich, MSS. ἐπεὶ καὶ φαίην.
1 This elder Sopater was put to death by Constantine.
206
᾿
TO LIBANIUS, SOPHIST AND QUAESTOR
us. Here I am being entertained by a friend who,
though I have only lately met him for the first
time has long been dear to me. I know that you
yourself are well aware of the reason, but for all
that it gives me pleasure to tell you. For it is like
nectar to me to hear and to speak of these things
continually. Sopater,! the pupil of the god-like
Jamblichus, was a relative by marriage of this
Sopater.2, Not to love even as myself all that be-
longed to those men is in my opinion equivalent to
the lowest baseness. But there is another more
powerful reason than this. Though he often enter-
tained my cousin and my half-brother? and was
often urged by them, naturally enough, to abandon
his piety towards the gods, and though this is hard
to withstand, he was not infected with this disease.
Thus much, then, I was able to write to you from
Hierapolis about my own affairs. But as regards
the military or political arrangements, you ought, ἢ
think, to have been present to observe and pay
attention to them yourself. For, as you well know,
the matter is too long for a letter, in fact so vast
that if one considered it in detail it would not be
easy to confine it to a letter even three times as
long as this. But I will tell you of these matters
also, summarily, and in a very few words. I sent
an embassy to the Saracens® and suggested that
For the younger Sopater, see Introduction.
% Constantius and Gallus ; cf. Misopogon 340a.
4 For Christianity a disease, cf. Oration 7. 229p and
Against the Galilaeans 3278.
5 According to Ammianus 23. 3. 8, the Saracens offered
themselves to Julian as allies, but they apparently deserted
later to the Persians, cf. Zosimus 3. 27. 3; Ammianus 25,
6. 10.
207
402
383
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
πρέσβεις, ὑπομιμνήσκων αὐτοὺς ἥκειν, εἰ βού-
λοιντο. ἕν μὲν δὴ τοιοῦτον: ἕτερον δέ, λίαν
ἐγρηγορότας ὡς ἐνεδέχετο τοὺς παραφυλάξοντας
ἐξέπεμψα, μή τις ἐνθένδε πρὸς τοὺς πολεμίους
ἐξέλθῃ λαθών, ἐσόμενος αὐτοῖς ὡς κεκινήμεθα
μηνυτής. ἐκεῖθεν ἐδίκασα δίκην στρατιωτικήν,
ὡς ἐμαυτὸν πείθω, πρᾳότατα καὶ δικαιότατα.
ἵππους περιττοὺς καὶ ἡμιόνους παρεσκεύασα, τὸ
στρατόπεδον εἰς ταὐτὸ συναγαγών. ναῦς πλη-
ροῦνται ποτάμιαι πυροῦ, μᾶλλον δὲ ἄρτων ξηρῶν
καὶ ὄξους. καὶ τούτων ἕκαστον ὅπως ἐπράχθη
καὶ τίνες ἐφ᾽ ἑκάστῳ γεγόνασι λόγοι, πόσου
μήκους ἐστὶ συγγράφειν ἐννοεῖς. ἐπιστολαῖς δὲ
ὅσαις ὑπέγραψα καὶ βίβλοις: ἑπόμενα γὰρ
ὡσπερεὶ σκιά! μοι καὶ ταῦτα συμπερινοστεῖ
πανταχοῦ" τί δεῖ νῦν πράγματα ἔχειν ἀπαριθμού-
μενον ;
59 2
Μαξίμῳ φιλοσόφῳ
ς \ a A \ ΕῚ / ΕῚ \ \ /
O μὲν μῦθος ποιεῖ τὸν ἀετόν, ἐπειδὰν τὰ γνήσια
τῶν κυημάτων Bacavitn, φέρειν ἄπτιλα πρὸς τὸν
1 ὥσπερ σκιά Cobet; ὥσπερ αἴσια MSS.; ὡσπερεὶ σκιά
Hertlein.
* Letters 59-73 cannot be dated, even approximately, from
their contents.
ὅ Hertlein 16; the preceding letter, Hertlein 15, was
addressed to Maximus, hence his title τῷ αὐτῷ.
1 This is Julian’s last extant letter. On leaving Hierapolis
he marched to Carrhae, which place he left on March 25th,
He crossed the Tigris in May, declined the siege of Ctesiphon,
208
TO MAXIMUS THE PHILOSOPHER
they could come if they wished. That is one affair
of the sort I have mentioned. For another, I des-
patched men as wide-awake as I could obtain that
they might guard against anyone’s leaving here
secretly to go to the enemy and inform them that
we are on the move. After that I held a court
martial and, 1 am convinced, showed in my decision
the utmost clemency and justice. I have procured
excellent horses and mules and have mustered all
my forces together. The boats to be used on the
river are laden with corn, or rather with baked bread
and sour wine. You can understand at what length
I should have to write in order to describe how every
detail of this business was worked out and what
discussions arose over every one of them. As for the
number of letters I have signed, and papers,—for
these too follow me everywhere like my shadow,—
why should I take the trouble to enumerate them
now?!
59
To Maximus the Philosopher 3
We are told in the myth that the eagle,? when
he would test which of his brood are genuine, carries
the Persian capital, burnt his fleet on the Tigris early in
June, and was killed in a skirmish on June 26th, somewhere
between Ctesiphon and Samarra on the Tigris. His body
was carried back and buried at Tarsus in Cilicia, where he
had told the people of Antioch he should spend the winter ;
Ammianus 25, 10. 5.
5 Cumont and Geffcken reject, without good grounds,
Schwarz defends, the authenticity of this sophistic letter,
which was probably written from Gaul.
8 A rhetorical commonplace; cf. 70. Jamblichus, Ὁ. 259,
note ; Lucian, 7'he Fisherman 46.
209
VOL, II. i
384
386
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
αἰθέρα, καὶ ταῖς ἡλίου προσάγειν ἀκτῖσιν, ὥσπερ
ὑπὸ μάρτυρι τῷ θεῴ πατέρα τε ἀληθοῦς νεοττοῦ
γινόμενον καὶ νόθου γονῆς ἀλλοτριούμενον" ἡμεῖς
δέ σοι καθάπερ Ἑρμῇ λογίῳ τοὺς ἡμετέρους λό-
γους ἐγχειρίζομεν. κἂν μὲν ὑπομείνωσι τὴν ἀκοὴν
τὴν σήν, ἐπὶ σοὶ τὸ κρῖναι περὶ αὐτῶν, εἰ καὶ τρὺς
τοὺς ἄλλους εἰσὶ πτήσιμοι: εἰ δὲ μή, ῥῇῖψον εἰκῆ 1
καθάπερ Μουσῶν ἀλλοτρίους, ἢ ποταμῷ κλύσον
ὡς νόθους. πάντως οὐδὲ ὁ Ῥῆνος ἀδικεῖ τοὺς
Κελτούς, ὃ ὃς τὰ μὲν νόθα τῶν βρεφῶν ὑποβρύχια
ταῖς δίναις ποιεῖ, καθάπερ ἀκολάστου λέχους
τιμωρὸς πρέπων' ὅσα δ᾽ ἂν ἐπιγνῷ “καθαροῦ σπέρ-
ματος, ὑπεράνω τοῦ ὕδατος αἰωρεῖ, καὶ τῇ μητρὶ
τρεμούσῃ πάλιν εἰς χεῖρας δίδωσιν, ὥ ὥσπερ, ἀδέκα-
στόν τινα μαρτυρίαν αὐτῇ καθαρῶν καὶ ἀμέμπτων
γάμων τὴν τοῦ παιδὸς σωτηρίαν ἀντιδωρούμενος.
60
Evyevio φιλοσόφῳ 3
Δαίδαλον μὲν Ἰκάρῳ * φασὶν ἐκ κηροῦ πτερὰ
συμπλάσαντα τολμῆσαι τὴν φύσιν βιάσασθαι τῇ
τέχνῃ. ἐγὼ δὲ ἐκεῖνον μὲν εἰ καὶ τῆς τέχνης
1 εἰκῆ Ambrosianus L 73, ἐκεῖ Vossianus, Hertlein ; Hercher
regards as dittography of εἰ καὶ above.
* Hertlein 18,
3 Ἰκάρῳ Hertlein suggests, Ἰκαρίῳ MSS.
1 The allusion to Julian’s writings is too vague to be used
to date this letter.
2 A commonplace of rhetoric; cf. Julian, Vol. 1, Ovation
2. 810; Claudian, Jn Rufinum 2. 112, et quos nascentes
210
TO EUGENIUS THE PHILOSOPHER
them still unfledged into the upper air and exposes
them to the rays of the sun, to the end that he may
become, by the testimony of the god, the sire of a
true nursling and disown any spurious offspring.
Even so I submit my speeches! to you as though
to Hermes the god of eloquence; and, if they can
bear the test of being heard by you, it rests with
you to decide concerning them whether they are fit
to take flight to other men also. But if they are not,
then fling them away as though disowned by the
Muses, or plunge them in a river as_ bastards.
Certainly the Rhine does not mislead the Celts,”
for it sinks deep in its eddies their bastard infants,
like a fitting avenger of an adulterous bed; but all
those that it recognises to be of pure descent it
supports on the surface of the water and gives them
back to the arms of the trembling mother, thus
rewarding her with the safety of her child as in-
corruptible evidence that her marriage is pure and
without reproach.
60
To Eugenius 8 the Philosopher
We are told that Daedalus dared to do violence
to nature by his art, and moulded wings of wax
for Icarus. But for my part, though I applaud him
explorat gurgite Rhenus; Galen 6.51 Kiihn, says that the
ordeal was to strengthen their bodies as well as to test their
legitimacy ; ef. Voltaire, Essai sur les meurs 146.
8 A philosopher named Eugenius was the father of the
sophist and philosopher Themistius, an older contemporary
of Julian, but this letter with its familiar tone cannot have
been addressed to a man of advanced age. Schwarz, Cumont
and Geffcken reject it on the ground of its sophistic manner-
isms, but see Introduction.
211
p 2
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
a n / 4 A
ἐπαινῶ, τῆς γνώμης οὐκ ἄγαμαι" μόνος yap κηρῷ
“ / an
λυσίμῳ TOD παιδὸς ὑπέμεινε τὴν σωτηρίαν πιστεῦ-
σαι. εἰ δέ μοι θέμις ἣν κατὰ τὸν Τήιον ἐκεῖνον
μελοποιὸν τὴν τῶν ὀρνίθων ἀλλάξασθαι φύσιν,
> x , ‘ » 2a we We \ /
οὐκ ἂν δήπου πρὸς ᾽Ολυμπον οὐδὲ ὑπὲρ μέμψεως
na a / lal
ἐρωτικῆς, ἀλλ᾽ εἰς αὐτοὺς ἂν τῶν ὑμετέρων ὀρῶν
τοὺς πρόποδας ἔπτην, ἵνα σὲ τὸ μέλημα τοὐμόν,
4 ε , / > \ ,
ὥς φησιν ἡ Σαπφώ, περιπτύξωμαι. ἐπεὶ δέ με
lal , 7
ἀνθρωπίνου σώματος δεσμῷ κατακλείσασα ἡ φύ-
σις οὐκ ἐθέλει πρὸς τὸ μετέωρον ἁπλῶσαι, τῶν
a /
λόγων οἷς ἔχω σε πτεροῖς μετέρχομαι, Kal γράφω,
\
καὶ σύνειμι τὸν δυνατὸν τρόπον. πάντως που Kal
Ὅμηρος αὐτοὺς οὐκ ἄλλου του χάριν ἢ τούτου
πτερόεντας ὀνομάζει, διότι δύνανται πανταχοῦ
ἴω n ’
φοιτᾶν ὥσπερ οἱ ταχύτατοι τῶν ὀρνίθων ἡ ἂν
2 v , \ \ 9-258 9 ,
ἐθέλωσιν ἄττοντες. γράφε δὲ καὶ αὐτός, ὦ φίλος"
ἴση γὰρ δήπου σοι τῶν λόγων, εἰ μὴ καὶ μείζων,
ὑπάρχει πτέρωσις, % τοὺς ἑταΐρους μεταβῆναι
δύνασαι καὶ πανταχόθεν ὡς παρὼν εὐφραίνειν.
"
61
Σωπάτρῳ ?
WT AT PO
"Ἔστι τις ἡδονῆς ἀφορμὴ πλείων, ὅταν ἐξῇ bv
ἀνδρὸς οἰκείου τοὺς φίλους προσφωνεῖν" οὐ γὰρ
1 μεταβῆναι Ambrosianus 1,78 ; μεταθεῖν Wyttenbach, Hert-
lein ; μεταθεῖναι Vossianus.
* Hertlein 67. Σωσιπάτρῳ Hertlein, but prefers Swrdrpy
Fabricius. See Introduction, under Sopater.
* Anacreon frag. 22, Bergk ᾿Αναπέτομαι δὴ πρὸς "Ολυμπον
πτερύγεσσι κουφαῖς διὰ τὸν *Epwr’. 2 Frag. 120, Bergk.
212
TO SOPATER
for his art, I cannot admire his judgement. For
he is the only man who ever had the courage to
entrust the safety of his son to soluble wax. But if
it were granted me, in the words of the famous lyric
poet of Teos,! to change my nature to a bird’s, I
should certainly not “fly to Olympus for Love,”
—no, not even to lodge a comp!aint against him—
but I should fly to the very foothills of your moun-
tains to embrace “thee, my darling,’ as Sappho 3
says. But since nature has confined me in the prison
of a human body ® and refuses to lighten and raise me
aloft, I approach you with such wings as I possess,*
the wings of words, and I write to you, and am with
you in such fashion as I can. Cul for this reason
and this only Homer calls ards Winger th
they are able to go to and fro in irection,
darting where the
But do you tor your part write to me too, my friend4
For you possess an equal if not a larger share of the
plumage of words, with which you are able to travel
to your friends and from wherever you may be, just
as though you were present, to cheer them.
61
To Sopater ®
Ir is an occasion to rejoice the more when one
has the chance to address friends through an
intimate friend. For then it ts not only by what
3 A Platonic commonplace; cf. Julian, Oration 6. 1988 ;
7. 9068. 4 Cf. Letter 76. 449D, p. 244, note.
5 This letter is rejected by Schwarz, Cumont and Geffcken ;
Schwarz on the slender evidence of style classes it with the
apocryphal letters to Iamblichus ; Cumont also places it in
that series, and thinks that this Sopater is the friend of
the elder Iamblichus executed by Constantine.
213
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
μόνον. οἷς γράφεις τὸ τῆς σεαυτοῦ ψυχῆς ἴνδαλμα
τοῖς ἐντυγχάνουσι ξυναρμόττῃ. ὃ δὴ καὶ αὐτὸς
ποιῶ. τὸν γὰρ τροφέα τῶν ἐμαυτοῦ παίδων᾽ Αντί-
οχον ὡς ὑμᾶς ἐκπέμπων, ἀπρόσρητόν σε κατα-
λιπεῖν οὐκ ἠνεσχόμην" ὥστε, εἴ τι τῶν καθ᾽ ἡμᾶς
ποθεῖς, ἔχοις ἂν οἰκειότερον map αὐτοῦ γνῶναι.
εἰ δέ τι καὶ σοὶ μέλει τῶν σῶν ἐραστῶν, ὡς ἔγωγε
ὅτι μέλει πιστεύω, δείξεις ἕως ἂν ἐξῇ γράφειν
μηδαμῶς ἐλλείπων.
62
Εὐκλείδῃ φιλοσόφῳ 3
Πότε γὰρ ἡμῶν ἀπελείφθης, ἵ ἵνα καὶ γράφωμεν,
ἢ πότε οὐχὶ τοῖς τῆς “ψυχῆς ὀφθαλμοῖς ὡς παρόν-
ta σε θεωροῦμεν ; οἵ γε οὐ μόνον ἀεί σοι συνεῖναι
καὶ συνομιλεῖν. δοκοῦμεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν γε νῦν
προσηκόντων ὡς ὑπὸ παρουσίᾳ τῇ σῇ τὰ εἰκότα
κηδόμεθα. εἴ δὲ καὶ γράφεσθαι σοι παρ᾽ ἡμῶν ὡς
ἀπόντι θέλεις, ὅ ὅρα μὲν ὅπως μὴ αὐτὸς τὸ δοκεῖν
ἡμῶν ἀπεῖναι μᾶλλον αὐτῷ τῷ γράφειν ἐθέλειν
ἐκφήνῃς" πλὴν ἀλλ᾽ εἴ γε σοι φίλον ἐστί, καὶ “πρὸς
τοῦτο ἑκόντες ὑπακούομεν. πάντως γε, τὸ τοῦ
ἕως Hertlein suggests ; MSS., Hertlein ἐν οἷς.
8 : Hectlein 73.
1 No forger would have referred to children of Julian’s
body ; but the phrase may refer to his writings. Libanius,
Epitaphius, says of Julian’s letters παῖδας τούτους ἀθανάτους
καταλέλοιπεν. See also 70 Jamblichus, p. 255.
2 Libanius often mentions a certain Eucleides, a native of
Constantinople, to whom this letter may be addressed ; the
214
TO EUCLEIDES THE PHILOSOPHER
you write that you unite the image of your own soul
with your readers. And this is what I myself am
doing. For when I despatched the custodian of my
children,! Antiochus, to you, I could not bear to
leave you without a word of greeting. So that if
you want to have news of me, you can have from
him information of a more intimate sort. And if
you care at all for your admirers, as I believe you
do care, you will prove it by never missing an
opportunity while you are able to write.
62
To Eucleides the Philosopher 3
Nay, when did you ever leave me, so that I need
to write, or when do I not behold you with the eyes
of the soul as though you were here with me? For.
not only do I seem to be with you continually and
to converse with you, but I pay attention to my
duties now just as zealously as when you were here
to guide me. But if you do wish me to write to you,
just as though you were not here, then take care
that you do not yourself create the impression of
not being with me all the more by your very wish
that I should write. However, if you do really find
pleasure in it I am willing to obey you in this also.
At any rate, by your request, you will, as the proverb
reference to public affairs may imply that Julian was already
Emperor, but it cannot be dated with certainty. Schwarz
rejects the letter on stylistic grounds, and Cumont for the same
reason attributed it to the sophist Julian of Caesarea, for
whom see Introduction under lamblichus ; but, though it is
conventional and sophistic, there is nothing in it that the
Emperor Julian might not have written.
215
387
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
λόγου, θέοντα , τῇ “παρακελεύσει τὸν ἵππον εἰς
πεδίον ἄξεις. ἄγε οὖν ὅπως ἀντιδώσειςϊ τὰ ἴσα, καὶ
πρὸς τὴν ἀντίκλησιν ἐν τῇ τῶν ἀμοιβαίων συνε-
χείᾳ μὴ κατοκνήσεις." καίτοι ἔγωγε εἰς τὴν ὑπὲρ
τοῦ κοινοῦ σοι γινομένην σπουδὴν οὐκ ἐθέλω
διοχλεῖν, ἀλλ᾽ ὅσῳ 5 σε φυλάττω * τῇ θήρᾳ τῶν
καλῶν, οὐ μόνον οὐκ ἀδικεῖν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ξύμπαν
ὁμοῦ τὸ Ἑλληνικὸν ὠφελεῖν ἂν δοκοίην, ὥσπερ
σκύλακα γενναῖον, ἀόχλητον ἀφιεὶς ἐσχολακέναι
σε τοῖς περὶ τοὺς λόγους ἴχνεσιν ὁλοκλήρῳ τῷ
λήματι" εἰ δέ σοι τοσοῦτον ,τάχος περίεστιν, ὡς
μήτε τῶν φίλων ἀμελεῖν μήτ᾽ ἐκείνοις ἐνδεῖν, ἴθι
χρῆσαι Tap > ἄμφω τῷ δρόμῳ.
63
“Εκηβολίῳ ὃ
Πινδάρῳ μὲν ἀργυρέας εἶναι δοκεῖ τὰς “Μούσας,
οἱονεὶ τὸ ἔκδηλον αὐτῶν καὶ περιφανὲς τῆς τέχνης
ἐς τὸ τῆς ὕλης λαμπρότερον ἀπεικάξοντι"" Ὅμηρος
δὲ ὁ σοφὸς τόν τε ἄργυρον αἰγλήεντα λέγει καὶ τὸ
ὕδωρ a ἀργύρεον ὀνομάξει, καθάπερ ἡλίου καθαραῖς
ἀκτῖσιν αὐτῷ τῷ τῆς εἰκόνος φαιδρῷ μαρμαρύοσ-
σον" Σαπφὼ δ᾽ ἡ καλὴ τὴν σελήνην ἀργυρέαν
φησὶ καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τῶν ἄχλων ἀστέρων ἀποκρύ-
Trew τὴν ὄψιν. οὕτω καὶ θεοῖς τὸν ἄργυρον
ἀντιδώσεις Cobet ; ἀντιδίδως Hertlein, MSS.
κατοκνήσεις Cobet ; κατοκνήσῃς Hertlein, MSS.
ὕλον X,
Hertlein suggests ἀλλὰ τῷ σε φυλάττειν,
Hertlein suggests πρός.
Hertlein 19,
μ
oo αὐ ὦ & tl
216
TO HECEBOLIUS
says, lead a galloping horse into the plain. Come
then, see that you return like for like, and in answer
to my counter-summons do not grow weary of the
unbroken series of letters exchanged between us.
And yet I have no wish to hinder the zeal that
you display on behalf of the public welfare, never-
theless, in proportion as I keep you free for the
pursuit of noble studies, I shall be thought, far from
injuring it, to benefit the whole body of Hellenes
- at once, that is to say, if I leave you like a young
and well-bred dog without interference, free to give
all your time to tracking down, with a mind wholly
free from all else, the art of writing discourses; but
if you possess such swiftness that you need neither
neglect your friends nor slacken in those other
pursuits, come, take both courses and run at full
speed !
63
To Hecebolius 1
Pinpar? thinks that the Muses are “silvery,”
and it is as though he likened the clearness and
splendour of their art to the substance that shines
most brilliantly. And the wise Homer® calls silver
“shining,” and gives to water the epithet “silvery”
because it gleams with the very brightness of the
reflected image of the sun, as though under its
direct rays. And Sappho‘ the fair says that the
moon is “silvery,” and that because of this it dims
the radiance of the other stars. Similarly one might
1 See Introduction, under Hecebolius.
2 Frag. 272, Bergk. ; cf. Pythian 9. 65, Isthmian 2. 13.
ὃ. These epithets for silver and water are not in our
Homer.
4 Frag. 3, Bergk.; cf. Julian, Oration 3. 1090, note, Wright.
217
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
μᾶλλον ἢ τὸν ρυσὸν εἰκάσειεν ἄν τις πρέπειν"
Β ἀνθρώποις γε μὴν ὅτι πρὸς τὴν χρείαν ἐστὶν ὁ
ἄργυρος τοῦ χρυσοῦ τιμιώτερος καὶ σύνεστι μᾶλ-
λον αὐτοῖς, οὐχ ὥσπερ ὁ 0 “χρυσὸς ὑπὸ γῆς κρυπτό-
μενος ἢ φεύγων αὐτῶν τὴν ὄψιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὀφθῆ-
vat καλὸς καὶ ἐν διαιτήματι κρείττων, οὐκ ἐμὸς
ἴδιος, ἀλλὰ παλαιῶν ἀνδρῶν ὁ λόγος ἐστίν. εἰ
C δέ σοι τοῦ “πεμφθέντος ὑπὸ σοῦ χρυσοῦ νομίσ-
ματος εἰς τὸ ἴσον τῆς τιμῆς ἕτερον ἀργύρεον. ἀντι-
δίδομεν, μὴ κρίνῃς ἥττω τὴν χάριν, μηδὲ ὥσπερ
τῷ ᾿λαύκῳ πρὸς τὸ ἔλαττον οἰηθῇς εἶ εἶναι τὴν ἀντί-
δοσιν, ἐπεὶ μηδὲ ὁ ὁ Διομήδης ἴσως “ἀργυρᾶ χρυσῶν
ἀντέδωκεν av,} ἅτε δὴ πολλῷ τῶν ἑτέρων ὄντα
χρησιμώτερα καὶ τὰς αἰχμὰς οἱονεὶ 2 μολίβδου
ten EXT PET EW εἰδότα. ταῦτά σοι προσπαίζο-
μεν, ἀφ᾽ ὧν αὐτὸς γράφεις τὸ ἐνδόσιμον εἰς σὲ τῆς
D παρρησίας λαμβάνοντες. σὺ δὲ εἰ τῷ ὄντι χρυσοῦ
τιμιώτερα ἡμῖν δῶρα ἐθέλεις ἐκπέμπειν, γράφε,
καὶ μὴ λῆγε συνεχῶς τοῦτο πράττων" ἐμοὶ γὰρ
καὶ γράμμα παρὰ σοῦ μικρὸν ὅτου περ ἂν εἴπῃ τις
ἀγαθοῦ κάλλιον εἶναι κρίνεται.
64
n ἴω 3
Λουκιανῷ σοφιστῇ
404 Kai γράφω καὶ ἀντιτυχεῖν ἀξιῶ τῶν ἴσων. εἰ
1 ἂν Cobet adds.
5. οἱονεὶ Hercher deletes, Hertlein brackets, but the con-
struction οἷον εἰ--δίκην occurs in letters not certainly Julian’s ;
οἵ, 3930, p. 274, 440p, p. 222. 3 Hertlein 32.
1 For this Julianic commonplace cf. Oration 6. 1978, note.
* A sophistic commonplace; cf. Vol. 2, Letter to Themistius
260A, note. He exchanged bronze armour for golden; Jliad
6. 236,
218
TO LUCIAN THE SOPHIST
imagine silver to be more appropriate to the gods
than gold; but that to man, at any rate, silver
is more precious than gold and more familiar to
them because it is not, like gold, hidden under the
earth and does not avoid their eyes, but is both beau-
tiful to the eye and more serviceable in daily life,—
this, I say, is not my own theory?! but was held by
men of old. If, therefore, in return for the gold coin
sent by you I give you a piece of silver of equal
value, think not that the favour is less and do not
imagine that, as with Glaucus,? the exchange is to
your disadvantage; for perhaps not even Diomede
would have exchanged silver armour for golden,
seeing that the former is far more serviceable than
the latter, and like lead well fitted to turn the points
of spears.2 All this I am saying in jest, and 1 take
the cue* for my freedom of speech to you from what
you write yourself. But if you really wish to send
me gifts more precious than gold, write, and keep
on writing regularly. For even a short letter from |
you I hold to be more precious than any other
blessing that one could name.
64
To Lucian the Sophist ®
Not only do I write to you but I demand to
receive payment in kind. And if I treat you ill by
3 Iliad 11. 237 ἀργύρῳ ἀντομένη, μόλιβος ὥς, ἐτράπετ᾽ αἰχμή.
4 Literally ‘‘keynote”; cf. Zo Jamblichus 421a, p. 238.
5 A merely sophistic letter of compliment such as this
is a conventional “type” of the sort recommended in the
contemporary handbooks on epistolary style. Gesner thinks
it was addressed to the Lucian who wrote the dialogue
Philopatris, preserved with the works of his illustrious
namesake, but there is no eyidence of this.
219
442
D
448
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
δὲ ἀδικῶ συνεχῶς ἐπιστέλλων, ἀνταδικηθῆναι déo-
μαι τὰ ὅμοια παθών.
65
᾿Ελπιδίῳ φιλοσόφῳ 1
Ἔστι καὶ μικροῦ γράμματος ἡδονὴ μείζων, ὅταν
ἡ τοῦ γράφοντος. εὔνοια μὴ τῇ τῆς ἐπιστολῆς σμι-
κρότητι μᾶλλον ἢ ἢ τῷ τῆς ψυχῆς μεγέθει μετρῆται"
εἰ δὲ δὴ καὶ νῦν βραχέα τὰ τῆς προσρήσεως ὑφ᾽
ἡμῶν γεγένηται, μηδ᾽ οὕτω 3 τὸν ἐπ᾽ αὐτοῖς πόθον
τεκμηριώσῃ, ἀλλ᾽ εἰδώς, ἐφ᾽ ὅσον ὁ παρ᾽ ἡμῶν
ἔρως ἐπὶ σοὶ τέταται, τῇ μὲν τοῦ γράμματος βρα-
χύτητι συγγνώμην νέμε, τοῖς ἴσοις ὲ ἡμᾶς ἀμεί-
βεσθαι μὴ KaToKver. πᾶν γὰρ ὅ τι ἂν διδῷς, κἂν
μικρὸν ἢ, παντὸς ἀγαθοῦ γνώρισμα παρ᾽ ἡμῖν
σώζει.
66
Γεωργίῳ ΚΚαθολικῷ 3
Ἡ μὲν ἠχὼ θεὸς ἔστω κατὰ σὲ καὶ λάλος, εἰ δὲ
βούλει, καὶ Πανὶ σύξυγος" οὐ γὰρ διοίσομαι. κἂν
γὰρ ἐθέλῃ με διδάσκειν ἡ φύσις ὅτι ἐστὶν ἠχὼ
φωνῆς ἐς ἀέρος πλῆξιν ἀντίτυπος ἠχὴ πρὸς τοὔμ-
2 , Hertlein 57.
μὴ τούτῳ Hertlein suggests.
ὃ ὁ δὲ τοῖς 54.
1 We know from Libanius, Letter 758 Foerster, ΤῸ Julian,
that towards the end of 362 Elpidius was at Antioch and in
Julian’s confidence. This letter is purely formal and may
have been written then, or earlier. There are several letters
extant from Libanius to Elpidius. Cumont ascribed this
letter to Julian of Caesarea.
220
TO GEORGE, A REVENUE OFFICIAL
writing continually, then I beg you to illtreat me in
return and make me suffer in the same way.
65
To Elpidius, a Philosopher 1
Even a short letter gives more pleasure when the
writer's affection can be measured by the greatness
of his soul rather than by the meagre proportions
of what he writes. So that if I now address you
briefly, do not even so conclude that the accompany-
ing affection is equally slight, but since you know
the full extent of my love for you, forgive the brevity
of my letter and do not hesitate to answer me in
one equally short. For whatever you send me, how-
ever trifling, keeps alive in my mind a remembrance
of all that is good.
66
To George, a Revenue Official 3
We tt, let us grant that Echo is a goddess, as
you say she is, and a chatterbox, and, if you like,
the wife of Pan? also; for I shall not object. And
even though nature would fain inform me that Echo
is only the sound of the voice answering back when
the air is struck, and bent back upon that which is
2 Otherwise unknown. ‘The title Catholicus (cf. our
‘*General”) was used of officials in charge of the collection
of tribute, especially in Africa ; it is equivalent to procwrator
Jisct. George was probably a sophist. his and the following
letter are rejected by Schwarz, Cumont and aba tain ὅτ because
of their sophistic mannerisms.
3 Moschus, Jdyl 6.
221
441
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
παλιν τῆς ἀκοῆς ἀντανακλωμένη, ὅμως, παλαιῶν
ἀνδρῶν ἔτι καὶ νέων οὐκ ἔλαττον ἢ τῷ σῷ πειθό-
μενος λόγῳ, θεὸν εἶναι τὴν ἠχὼ δυσωποῦμαι. τί
γοῦν ἂν εἴη τοῦτο πρὸς ἡμᾶς, εἰ πολλῷ τῷ μέτρῳ
τοῖς πρὸς σὲ φιλικοῖς τὴν ἠχὼ νικῶμεν ; ἡ μὲν
γὰρ οὐ πρὸς ἅπαντα, 6 τι ἂν ἀκούσῃ, μᾶλλον 7}
πρὸς τὰ ἔσχατα τῆς φωνῆς ἀντιφθέγγεται, καθά-
περ ἐρωμένη φειδωλὸς ἄκροις ἀντιφιλοῦσα τὸν
ἐραστὴν τοῖς χείλεσιν" ἡμεῖς δὲ καὶ τῶν πρὸς σὲ
κατάρχομεν ἡδέως͵ καὶ αὖθις εἰς τὴν παρὰ σοῦ
πρόκλησιν οἱονεὶ " σφαίρας δίκην τὸ ἴσον ἀντιπέμ-
πομεν. ὥστε οὐκ ἂν φθάνοις αὐτὸς ἔνοχος ὧν οἷς
γράφεις, καὶ σαυτόν, ἀφ᾽ ὧν πλέον λαμβάνων ἐλά-
χιστον ἀντιδίδως, οὐχ ἡμᾶς, ἐν οἷς ἐπ᾿ ἄμφω πλεο-
νεκτεῖν σπεύδομεν, ἐς τὸ ὅμοιον τῆς εἰκόνος ἐγκρί-
νων' πλὴν ἄν τε ἴσῳ τῷ μέτρῳ διδῷς ᾧπερ ἂν
λάβῃς, ἄν τε μή, ἡμῖν ὅ τι ἂν ἐξῇ παρὰ σοῦ
λαβεῖν ἡδὺ καὶ πρὸς τὸ ὅλον ἀρκεῖν πιστεύεται.
67
Γεωργίῳ ἹΚαθολικῷ ὃ
Ἦλθες, Τηλέμαχε, φησὶ τὸ ἔπος" ἐγὼ δέ σε καὶ
εἶδον ἤδη τοῖς γράμμασι, καὶ τῆς ἱερᾶς σοῦ ψυχῆς
1 δὲ Hertlein suggests, but cf. Letter 71, p. 234.
2 See note to Letter 63, 387c.
3. Hertlein 8. Following Vossianus he omits καϑολικϑ,
which is preserved in Ambrosianus L73.
* For this conventional phrase, often used by Julian, cf.
7.0 Hecebolius, p. 219, and 70 Sarapion, pp. 271, 277.
222
TO GEORGE, A REVENUE OFFICIAL
opposite the ear that hears it, nevertheless, since
I put my faith in the account given by men both
ancient and modern,! and in your own account no
less, I am abashed into admitting that Echo is a
goddess.” What, in any case, would that matter to
me, if only, in my expressions of friendship towards
you, I excel Echo in a considerable degree? For she
does not reply to all the sounds that she hears, but
rather to the last syllables uttered by the voice,
like a grudging sweetheart who returns her lover's
kisses with the merest touch of her lips. I, on the
other hand, in my correspondence with you, lead off
sweetly, and then again, in reply to your challenge,
I return you like for like as though I threw back a
ball. Therefore you cannot be too quick in recog-
nising that your letters put you in default, and that
it is yourself, since you receive more and give back
very little, whom you consign to the similitude of
the figure, and not me, since I am eager to score off
you in both ways.? However, whether you give in
just the same degree as you receive, or not, whatever
I am permitted to receive from you is a boon, and is
credited as sufficient to balance the whole.
67
To George, a Revenue Official ὅ
* Tuou hast come, Telemachus!’’® as the verse
says, but in your letters I have already seen you and
* George had evidently used the figure of Echo, and
accused Julian of imitating her.
8 i.e. both in sending ne | receiving letters.
* Perhaps the last two sentences are a playful allusion to
George’s profession as a financier.
δ᾽ Geficken and Cumont reject this letter.
ὁ Odyssey 16. 23.
223
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
377 τὴν εἰκόνα καθάπερ ὀλίγῃ σφραγῖδι μεγάλου χα-
ρακτῆρος τύπον ἀνεμαξάμην. ἔστι γὰρ ἐν ὀλίγῳ
πολλὰ δειχθῆναι" ἐπεὶ καὶ Φειδίας ὁ σοφὸς οὐκ
ἐκ τῆς ᾿λυμπίασι μόνον ἢ ᾿Αθήνησιν εἰκόνος
ἐγνωρίξετο, ἀλλ᾽ ἤδει καὶ μικρῷ γλύμματι μεγά-
λης τέχνης ἔργον ἐγκλεῖσαι, οἷον δὴ τὸν τέττιγά
Β φασιν αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν μέλιτταν, εἰ δὲ βούλει, καὶ
τὴν μυῖαν εἶναι" ὧν ἕκαστον, εἰ καὶ τῇ φύσει κε-
χάλκωται, τῇ τέχνῃ γ᾽ ἐψύχωται. ἀλλ᾽ ἐν ἐκεί-
vous μὲν ἴσως αὐτῷ καὶ ἡ σμικρότης τῶν ζῴων. εἰς,
τὴν κατὰ λόγον τέχνην τὸ εἰκὸς ἐχαρίξετο' σὺ δ᾽
ἀλλὰ τὸν ἀφ᾽ ἵππου θηρῶντα ᾿Αλέξανδρον, εἰ
δοκεῖ, σκόπει, οὗ τὸ «μέτρον ἐστὶ πᾶν ὄνυχος οὐ
μεῖζον. οὕτω δ᾽ «ἐφ᾽ ἑκάστου τὸ θαῦμα τῆς τέχνης
κέχυται, ὥστε ὁ μὲν ᾿Αλέξανδρος ἤδη τὸ θηρίον
C βάλλει καὶ τὸν θεατὴν φοβεῖ, δι᾿ ὅλου δυσωπῶν
τοῦ σχήματος, ὁ δὲ ἵππος, ἐν ἄκρᾳ τῶν ποδῶν τῇ
βάσει τὴν στάσιν φεύγων, ἐν τῇ τῆς ἐνεργείας
κλοπῇ τῇ τέχνῃ κινεῖται" ὃ δὴ καὶ αὐτὸς ἡμῖν, ὦ ὧ
γενναῖε, ποιεῖς. ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐν “Ἑρμοῦ λογίου
σταδίοις ov ὅλου πολλάκις τοῦ δρόμου στεφανω-
θεὶς ἤδη, Ov ὧν ἐν ὀλίγοις γράφεις τῆς ἀρετῆς τὸ
ἄκρον ἐμφαίνεις, καὶ τῷ ὄντι. τὸν ᾿Οδυσσέα τὸν
D Ὁμήρου ζηλοῖς, ὃς καὶ μόνον εἰπὼν ὅστις ἦν ἤρκει
1 The ascription to Pheidias the sculptor of works in the
‘microtechnique’ described here, is sometimes due to the
confusion, in the Roman period, of the fifth century Pheidias
with a gem- -cutter of the same name who lived in the third
century n.c. In the Jahrbuch d.k.d. Arch. Instituls, 1889,
p. 210, Furtwiingler, who does not quote this letter, re-
produces a gem from the British Museum collection signed
by this later Pheidias; it is an Alexander on foot. The
anachronism here makes the letter suspect.
224
;
TO GEORGE, A REVENUE OFFICIAL
the image of your noble soul, and have received the
impression thereof as of an imposing device on a
small seal. For it is possible for much to be re-
vealed in little. Nay even Pheidias the wise artist
not only became famous for his statue at Olympia or
at Athens, but he knew also how to confine a work
of great art within the limits of a small piece of
sculpture ; for instance, they say that his grasshopper
and bee, and, if you please, his fly also, were of this
sort; for every one of these, though naturally com-
posed of bronze, through his artistic skill became a
living thing. In those works, however, the very
smallness of the living models perhaps contributed
the appearance of reality to his skilful art; and do
you, please, look at his Alexander! hunting on horse-
back, for its whole measurement is no larger than
a fingernail.? Yet the marvellous skill of the work-
manship is so lavished on every detail that Alexander
at one and the same time strikes his quarry and
intimidates the spectator, scaring him by his whole
bearing, while the horse, reared on the very tips of
his hoofs, is about to take a step and leave the
pedestal, and by creating the illusion of vigorous
action is endowed with movement by the artist’s
skill. This is exactly the effect that you have on me,
my excellent friend. For after having been crowned
often, already, as victor over the whole course, so to
speak, in the lists of Hermes, the God of Eloquence,
you now display the highest pitch of excellence in a
few written words. And in very truth you imitate
Homer's Odysseus,? who, by merely saying who he
2 See Vol. 1, Oration 3, 1124 for a reference to this kind of
carving.
3 Odyssey 9. 19.
225
VOL. Ill, ῳ
405
412
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
TOUS Φαίακας ἐκπλῆξαι. εἰ δέ τι καὶ παρ᾽ ἡμῶν
τοῦ κατὰ σὲ φιλικοῦ καπνοῦ δέει, φθόνος οὐδείς.
πάντως που καὶ παρὰ τῶν ἡττόνων εἶναί τι XpN-
στὸν ὁ μῦς τὸν λέοντα ἐν τῷ μύθῳ σώσας ἀρκούν-
τως δείκνυσιν.
68
Δοσιθέῳ 5
Μικροῦ μοι ἐπῆλθε δακρῦσαι" καίτοι γε ἐχρῆν
εὐφημεῖν τοὔνομα τὸ σὸν φθεγξάμενον' ἀνεμνήσθην
γὰρ τοῦ γενναίου καὶ πάντα θαυμασίου πατρὸς
ἡμῶν, 5 ὃ ὃν εἰ μὲν ζηλώσεις, αὐτός τε εὐδαίμων. ἔ ἔσῃ,
καὶ τῷ βίῳ δώσεις, ὥσπερ ἐκεῖνος, ἐφ᾽ ὅτῳ φιλο-
τιμήσεται" ῥᾳθυμήσας δὲ λυπήσεις ἐμέ, σαυτῷ δὲ
ὅτε μηδὲν ὄφελος μέμψῃ.
69
Ἵμερίῳ 4
3 > , \ > \ 5 /
Οὐκ ἀδακρυτί σου τὴν ἐπιστολὴν ἀνέγνων, ἣν
ἐπὶ τῷ τῆς συνοικούσης θανάτῳ πεποίησαι, τοῦ
πάθους τὴν ὑπερβολὴν ἀγγείλας. πρὸς γὰρ τῷ
1 δέῃ, Parisinas 2964, Heyler, cf. Leiter 6, 4038.
2 Hertlein 33. ® ὑμῶν Reiske.
4 Hertlein 37. Varsaviensis, δ ὦ Ἱμερίῳ Cumont accepts ;
Baroceianus Ἱμερίῳ ἐπάρχῳ Αἰγύπτου ἐπὶ τῇ γυναικὶ according to
Hertlein, Ἡμερίῳ «.7.A. Cumont. Parisinus, Hertlein *Apeple.
1 George had perhaps in his letter referred to the longing
of Odysseus to see even the smoke of his native land, an
had compared his friend’s letters to that smoke.
226
TO HIMERIUS
was, was able to dazzle the Phaeacians, But if even
from me you require some of what you call “ friendly
smoke,’ 1 shall not begrudge it. Surely the mouse
who saved the lion in the fable? is proof enough
that something useful may come even from one’s
inferiors.
68
To Dositheus 8
I am almost in tears—and yet the very utterance of
your name ought to have been an auspicious sound,
—for I recall to mind our noble and wholly admirable
father. If you make it your aim to imitate him,
not only will you yourself be happy but also you will
give to human life, as he did, an example of which it
will be proud. But if you are indolent you will
grieve me, and you will blame yourself when blaming
will not avail.
69
To Himerius®
I coutp not read without tears the letter which
you wrote after your wife’s death, in which you told
me of your surpassing grief. For not only does the
* Babrius, Fable 107; Aesop, Fable 256.
3 Otherwise unknown.
4 If the MS. reading is retained, Julian must. be referring
to someone who had taught them both. This was a regular
usage and the teacher of one’s own teacher could be referred
to as ‘‘ grandfather.”
5 Of Hertlein’s “" Amerius” we know nothing. See Intro-
duction, under Himerius.
227
ο 2
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
καὶ καθ᾽ ἑαυτὸ λύπης TO EvpBav ἄξιον εἶναι,
γυναῖκα νέαν καὶ σώφρονα καὶ θυμήρη τῷ γή-
x / e a
μαντι, πρὸς δὲ καὶ παίδων ἱερῶν ᾿ μητέρα, πρὸ
Ὁ a a a
ὥρας ἀναρπασθῆναι καθάπερ δᾷδα λαμπρῶς ἡμ-
/ s » > / la) \ ’
μένην, εἶτα ἐν ὀλίγῳ καταβαλοῦσαν τὴν φλόγα,
, \ na ,
ἔτι Kal TO τὰ τοῦ πάθους εἰς σὲ τείνειν οὐχ ἧττόν
μοι δοκεῖ λυπηρὸν εἶναι. ἥκιστα γὰρ δὴ πάντων
vy te ς Ν ΚΝ ἘΣ / 9? n \ 2
ἄξιος ἣν ὁ καλὸς ἡμῖν “Ἱμέριος " ἀλγεινοῦ τινὸς εἰς
a > a » RE \ / ‘ a
πεῖραν ἐλθεῖν, ἀνὴρ καὶ λόγῳ χρηστὸς Kal ἡμῖν
, \ 7 lal / e ’ »
εἰς τὰ μάλιστα τῶν φίλων ὁ ποθεινότατος. οὐ
\ > > ’ ἈΝ v4 9 e / \ /
μὴν ἀλλ, εἰ μὲν ἕτερος HV, ᾧ γράφειν περὶ τούτων
ἐχρῆν, πάντως ἂν ἔδει μοι πλειόνων εἰς τοῦτο
4 \ e ᾿] , \ \ i?
λόγων, TO TE συμβὰν ws ἀνθρώπινον καὶ TO φέρειν
id » - Ν \ \ > lal a > a
ὡς ἀναγκαῖον Kal TO μηδὲν ἐκ τοῦ μᾶλλον ἀλγεῖν
\ r
ἔχειν πλέον, Kal πάντα ὅσα ἐδόκει πρὸς τὴν TOU
πάθους παραμυθίαν ἁρμόττειν ὡς ἀγνοοῦντα διδά-
΄ a \
σκοντι. ἐπεὶ δὲ αἰσχρὸν ἡγοῦμαι πρὸς ἄνδρα καὶ
\ A al 50. 7 a ,
τοὺς ἄλλους νουθετεῖν εἰδότα ποιεῖσθαι λόγους,
e \ \ \ 50. 7 a / /
ols χρὴ τοὺς μὴ εἰδότας σωφρονεῖν παιδεύειν, φέρε
ἊΝ \ 3 \ ” 9 "» “ fa
σοι Ta ἄλλα παρεὶς ἀνδρὸς εἴτ᾽ εἴπω σοφοῦ μῦθον
” \ / > a \ \ ,᾿ > / a
εἴτε δὴ λόγον ἀληθῆ, σοὶ μὲν ἴσως ov EEvov, τοῖς
πλείοσι δέ, ὡς εἰκός, ἄγνωστον, ᾧ δὴ καὶ μόνῳ χρη-
σάμενος ὥσπερ φαρμάκῳ νηπενθεῖ λύσιν ἂν εὕροις
Qn / > > / fal 4 ἃ « ’ὔ
τοῦ πάθους οὐκ ἐλάττω τῆς κύλικος, ἣν ἡ Λάκαινα
a a /
τῷ Τηλεμάχῳ πρὸς τὸ ἴσον τῆς χρείας ὀρέξαι πι-
1 γνεαρῶν Thomas suggests, but ἱερὸς is Julianic in the sense
of ‘* precious,” 2 Αμέριος, Parisinus 2755.
228
TO HIMERIUS
event in itself call for sorrow, when a young and
virtuous: wife, the joy of her husband's heart,! and
moreover the mother of precious children, is prema-
turely snatched away like a torch that has been
_kindled and shines brightly, and in a little while its
flame dies down, but over and above this, the fact
that it is you to whom this sorrow has come seems to
me to make it still more grievous. For least of all
men did our good Himerius deserve to experience
any afHiction, excellent orator that he is, and of all
my friends the best beloved. Moreover, if it were
any other man to whom 1 had to write about this,
I should certainly have had to use more words in
dealing with it; for instance, I should have said that
such an event is the common lot, that we must needs
submit, that nothing is gained by excessive grief, and
I should have uttered all the other commonplaces
considered appropriate for the alleviation of suffering,
that is if I were exhorting one who did not know them.
But since I think it unbecoming to offer to a man
who well knows how to instruct others the sort of
argument by which one must school those who are
too ignorant for self-control, see now, I will forbear
all such phrases; but I will relate to you a fable, or
it may be a true story, of a certain wise man, which
perhaps is not new to you, though it is probably
unfamiliar to most people ; and if you will use this
and this alone, as though it were a drug to relieve
pain, you will find release from your sorrow, as surely as
from that cup which the Spartan woman ? is believed
to have offered to Telemachus when his need was as
1 An echo of Jliad 9. 336 ἄλοχον θυμαρέα.
2 Helen, Odyssey 4. 220, a rhetorical commonplace ; cf.
Vol. 2, Oration 8. 2408, p. 167, note.
229
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
413 στεύεται. φασὶ yap Δημόκριτον τὸν ᾿Αβδηρίτην,
D
ἐπειδὴ Δαρείῳ γυναικὸς καλῆς ἀλγοῦντι θάνατον
, /
οὐκ εἶχεν ὅ TL ἂν εἰπὼν εἰς παραμυθίαν ἀρκέσειεν,
ig / e \ > a ? an > 7,
ὑποσχέσθαι οἱ τὴν ἀπελθοῦσαν εἰς φῶς ἀνάξειν,
ἣν ἐθελήσῃ τῶν εἰς τὴν χρείαν ἡκόντων ὑποστῆναι
/ ’ Ν
τὴν χορηγίαν. κελεύσαντος δ᾽ ἐκείνου μηδενὸς
, Ὁ > xX Jen , =") ἀν αν
φείσασθαι, 6 τι δ᾽ ἂν ἐξῇ λαβόντα τὴν ὑπόσχεσιν
“ Ν 4 / a
ἐμπεδῶσαι, μικρὸν ἐπισχόντα χρόνον εἰπεῖν, ὅτι
a \ an a
τὰ μὲν ἄλλα αὐτῷ πρὸς τὴν τοῦ ἔργου πρᾶξιν
’ , ἃ Ν
συμπορισθείη, μόνου δὲ ἑνὸς προσδέοιτο, ὃ δὴ
> \ Ν > ΝΜ [κέ Ἃ / a \
αὐτὸν μὲν οὐκ ἔχειν ὅπως ἂν λάβοι, Δαρεῖον δὲ
΄ / ce an ’ e > al XN »”
ws βασιλέα ὅλης τῆς Actas ov χαλεπῶς ἂν Laws
-“ ’ὔ “ re
εὑρεῖν. ἐρομένου δ᾽ ἐκείνου, τί ἂν εἴη τοσοῦτον ὃ
μόνῳ βασιλεῖ γνωσθῆναι συγχωρεῖται, ὑπολα-
/ \ , al a
Bovra φασὶ τὸν Δημόκριτον εἰπεῖν, εἰ τρεῶν ἀπεν-
5 ’ A an
θήτων ὀνόματα TO τάφῳ THs γυναικὸς ἐπυγρά-
‘ \ a fol an
ψείεν, εὐθὺς αὐτὴν ἀναβιώσεσθαι τῷ τῆς τελετῆς
, ἴω /
νόμῳ δυσωπουμένην. ἀπορήσαντος δὲ τοῦ Δαρείου
Yi a
καὶ μηδένα apa δυνηθέντος εὑρεῖν ὅτῳ μὴ Kal
a /
παθεῖν λυπηρόν τι συνηνέχθη, γελάσαντα συνή-
Ν / a
θως tov Δημόκριτον εἰπεῖν “ Ti οὖν, ὦ πάντων
ἀτοπώτατε, θρηνεῖς ἀνέδην ὡς μόνος ἀλγεινῷ το-
“ e a
σούτῳ συμπλακείς, ὁ μηδὲ Eva τῶν πώποτε γεγο-
ῇ 7 2 / / ” ς ὅς 9% 28 \
νότων ἄμοιρον οἰκείου πάθους ἔχων εὑρεῖν. ἀλλὰ
“ Ν :] 4 Μ a » ’
ταῦτα μὲν ἀκούειν ἔδει Δαρεῖον, ἄνδρα βάρβαρον
1 The Atomistic philosopher, cf. Diels, Die Fragmente der
Vorsokratiker 2. 16. 41. This is a traditional anecdote, told
of Herodes Atticus and Demonax by Lucian, Demonax 25,
and only here of Darius and Democritus,
230
TO HIMERIUS
great as your own. Now the story is that when
Darius was in great grief for the death of a beauti-
ful wife, Democritus! of Abdera could not by any
argument succeed in consoling him; and so he
promised him that he would bring back the departed
to life, if Darius were willing to undertake to supply
him with everything necessary for the purpose. Darius
bade him spare no expense but take whatever he
needed and make good his promise. After waiting
a little, Democritus said that he was provided with
everything else for carrying out his task, but still
needed one thing only, which he himself did not
know how to obtain; Darius, however, as King of all
Asia, would perhaps find it without difficulty. And
when the King asked him what it might be, this
great thing which it was possible for only a king to
know of, they say that Democritus in reply declared
that if he- would inscribe on his wife's tomb the
names of three persons who had never mourned for
anyone, she would straightway come to life again,
since she could not disobey the authority of this
mystic rite. Then Darius was in a dilemma, and
could not find any man who had not had to bear
some great sorrow, whereupon Democritus burst out
laughing,? as was his wont, and said: “ Why, then,
O most absurd of men, do you mourn without ceas-
ing, as though you were the only man who had ever
been involved in so great a grief, you who cannot
discover a single person of all who have ever lived
who was without his share of personal sorrow?”
But though it was necessary to say these things to
Darius, a barbarian and a man of no education, the slave
2 Democritus was known as ‘‘the laughing Philosopher
cf. Oration 6. 1860, Vol. 2, p. 20, Wright.
23!
402
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
Kal ἀπαίδευτον, ἔκδοτον ἡδονῇ καὶ πάθει" σὲ δέ,
ἄνδρα Ἕλληνα καὶ παιδείαν ἀληθῆ “πρεσβεύοντα,
καὶ παρὰ σαυτοῦ τὸ ἄκος ἐχρῆν ἔχειν, ἐπεὶ καὶ
ἄλλως αἰσχύνη τῷ "λογισμῷ γένοιτ᾽ ἄν, εἰ μὴ
ταὐτὸν σθένοι τῷ χρόνῳ.
70
Aeoneeee’
Διογένης ὁ ὁ σὸς υἱὸς ὀφθείς μοι μετὰ τὴν ἔξοδον
τὴν σὴν καὶ φήσας ὠργίσθαι σέ τι πρὸς αὐτόν,
οἷον ἂν πατὴρ πρὸς παῖδα χαλεπήνειεν, ἐδεήθη
μέσον με τῶν πρὸς αὐτὸν καταλλαγῶν παρὰ σοὶ
γενέσθαι. εἰ μὲν οὖν μέτρια καὶ οἷα δύνασθαι
φέρειν ἥ ἥμαρτεν, εἶξον τῇ φύσει καὶ τὸ “πατὴρ εἶναι
γνοὺς ἐπάνελθε πρὸς τὸν παῖδα τῇ γνώμῃ" εἰ
δέ τι μεῖξον ἔπταικεν ἢ οἷον πρὸς συγγνώμην
ἐλθεῖν, αὐτὸς ἂν εἴης δικαιότερος κριτής," εἴτε δεῖ
καὶ τοῦτο γενναίως ἐνεγκόντα νικῆσαι τοῦ παιδὸς
τὴν βουλὴν γνώμῃ κρείττονι, εἴτε καὶ πλείονος
χρόνου σωφρονισμῷ τὴν ἐπὶ τῷ πταισθέντι βάσα-
νον πιστεῦσαι.
71
Tpit ἡγεμόνι 3
᾿Εμοὶ καὶ γράμμα παρὰ σοῦ μικρὸν ἀρκεῖ μεγά-
λης ἡδονῆς πρόφασιν μνηστεῦσαι. καὶ τοίνυν,
1 Hertlein 70. 2 Hertlein 28.
* Diogenes is otherwise unknown. Schwarz places this
letter between January and June 362, when Julian was at
Constantinople, _The tone seems to imply that he was already
232
—— σῶν ὅμωυ
TO COMMANDER GREGORY
both of pleasure and of grief, you, on the other hand,
are a Greek, and honour true learning, and you must
find your remedy from within; for surely it would
be a disgrace to the reasoning faculty if it had not
the same potency as time.
70
To Diogenes ὦ
Your son Diogenes, whom I saw after you went
away, told me that you had been much irritated with
him for some reason that would naturally make a
father feel vexed with his child, and he implored me
to act as mediator in a reconciliation between him
and yourself. Now, if he has committed some error
of a mild and not intolerable kind, do you yield to
nature, recognise that you are a father, and again
turn your thoughts to your child. But if his offence
is too serious to admit of immediate forgiveness, it is
right for you yourself rather than for me to decide
whether you ought to bear even that with a generous
spirit and overcome your son’s purpose by wiser
thoughts, or to entrust the offender’s probation to
a longer period of discipline.
71
To Commander Gregory 5
Even a short letter from you is enough to provide
me with grounds for feeling greatly pleased. Ac-
Emperor, but the note is purely conventional, a ‘‘ type” of
the letter of intervention.
2 A Gregorius Dux was pretorian prefect in 336, accord-
ing to Codex Theodosianus 3. 1.2, but this purely formal letter
of the type that survived in epistolary handbooks is ars
addressed to a younger man.
233
429
THE LETTERS OF JULIAN
οἷς ἔγραψας ἄγαν. ἡσθεὶς, ἀντιδίδωμι καὶ αὐτὸς
τὴν ἴσην, οὐ τῷ τῶν ἐπιστολῶν μήκει μᾶλλον ἢ
τῷ τῆς εὐνοίας μεγέθει τὰς τῶν ἑταίρων φιλίας
ἐκτίνεσθαι δεῖν κρίνων.
72
Πλουτάρχῳ |
Πάντων μὲν ἕνεκά μοι τὸ σῶμα διάκειται με-
τρίως, οὐ “μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ τῆς γνώμης ἔχει καλῶς.
οἶμαι δ᾽ ἐγὼ τούτου προοίμιον εἶναι μηδὲν κρεῖττον
ἐπιστολῇ φίλῳ παρὰ φίλου πεμπομένῃ. τίνος
οὖν ἐστι τὸ προοίμιον ; αἰτήσεως, οἶμαι. τίς δὲ
ἡ αἴτησις ; ἐπιστολῶν ἀμοιβαίων, ἃ ἃς εἴη γε καὶ
κατὰ διάνοιαν “ὁμολογῆσαι ταῖς ἐμαῖς, αἴσια παρὰ
σοῦ ταὐτὰ πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἐξαγγελλούσας.
78
Μαξιμίνῳ 3
-
Ναῦς ἐπέταξα γενέσθαι περὶ τὰς ,Κεγχρέας" τὸ
μὲν οὖν ὅσας ὁ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἡγούμενος φράσει,
τὸ δὲ ὅ ὅπας χρὴ ποιεῖσθαι τὴν ἐπιμέλειαν ἄκουε
map ἡμῶν" ἀδωροδοκήτως καὶ ταχέως. ὅπως δὲ
μὴ “μεταμελήσει, σοι τῆς τοιαύτης ὑπουργίας,
αὐτὸς σὺν θεοῖς ἐπιμελήσομαι.
1 Hertlein 48, Ζήνωνι, To Zeno; I follow Cumont in re-
jecting this title, which does not appear in any MS. and was
introduced by Heyler, who derived it from the Paris edition
1605. Πλουτάρχῳ is the title in the Papadopoulos (Chalce)
MSS. 2 Papadopoulos 5*.
1 This <p? be the ohscure Athenian philosopher, a con-
temporary of Julian; cf. Marinus, Proclus 12,
234
a
a la Ἂς
TO MAXIMINUS
cordingly, since I was exceedingly pleased with what
you wrote to me, 1 in turn send you a letter of the
same length, because in my judgement the friendly
greetings of comrades ought to be rewarded not by
length of letter so much as by magnitude of goodwill.
72
To Plutarch !
In all respects my bodily health is fairly good, and
indeed my state of mind is no less satisfactory. I
fancy there can be no better prelude than this toa
letter sent from one friend to another. And to what
is this the prelude? Toa request, of course! And
what is the request? It is for letters in return, and
in their sentiments may they harmonise with my
own letters and bring me similar news from you, and
equally auspicious.
73
To Maximinus 2
I nave given orders that there shall be ships at
Cenchreae.? The number of these you will learn
from the governor of the Hellenes,* but as to how
you are to discharge your commission you may now
hear from me. [Ὁ must be without bribery and with-
out delay. I will myself, with the help of the gods,
see that you do not repent of having done your duty
as I have indicated.
2 Nothing is known of Maximinus or the circumstances ; if
the letter is genuine, as is probable, it may refer to Julian’s
preparations for his march against Constantius in 361.
3 A coast town δ΄. ΝΥ. of the Isthmus of Corinth.
4 2.6. the proconsul of Achaia who resided at Corinth.
235
420
B
D
74
Ιαμβλίχῳ 1
᾿Εχρῆν μὲν ἡμᾶς τῷ γράμματι πειθομένους τῷ
Δελφικῷ γιγνώσ kev ἑαυτοὺς καὶ μὴ τολμᾶν ἀνδρὸς
ἀκοῆς τοσούτου καταθαρρεῖν, ᾧ ᾧ καὶ ὀφθέντι μόνον
ἀντιβλέψαι δυσχερές, ἤ ἤ που τὴν πάνσοφον ἅρμο-
νίαν κινοῦντι πρὸς τὸ ἴσον ἐλθεῖν, ἐ ἐπεὶ κἂν Πανὶ
μέλος λιγυρὸν ἠχοῦντι πᾶς ὅστις ἐκσταίη, κἂν
"A ρισταῖος ἦ, καὶ ᾿Απόλλωνι πρὸς κιθάραν ψάλ-
λοντι πᾶς ὅστις ἠρεμοίη, κἂν τὴν ᾿Ορφέως μου-
σικὴν εἰδῇ. τὸ γὰρ ἧττον τῷ κρείττονι, καθ᾽ ὅ ὅσον
ἧττόν ἐστιν, εἴκοι ἂν δικαίως, εἰ μέλλοι τό τε
οἰκεῖον καὶ τὸ μὴ τί ἐστι γιγνώσκειν. ὅστις δ᾽
ἐνθέῳ μουσικῇ θνητὸν ἀνθαρμόσαι μέλος ἤλπισεν,
οὐκ ἔμαθέ που τὸ Μαρσύου τοῦ Φρυγὸς πάθος,
οὐδὲ τὸν ὁμώνυμον ἐκείνῳ ποταμόν, ὃς “μανέντος
αὐλητοῦ τιμωρίαν μαρτυρεῖ, ἀλλ᾽ οὐδὲ τὴν Θαμύ-
ριδος τοῦ Θρᾳκὸς τελευτὴν ἤκουσεν, ὃς ταῖς
Μούσαις οὐκ εὐτυχῶς ἀντεφθέγξατο. τί γὰρ δεῖ
τὰς Σειρῆνας λέγειν, ὧν ἔτι τὸ πτερὸν ἐπὶ τοῦ
1 Hertlein 41, τῷ αὐτῷ, as his Letter 40 is to Iamblichus.
Δ Letlers 74-83, with the possible exception of 81, are
certainly not by Julian.
236
—
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS?
74
To Iamblichus
I ovent indeed to have obeyed the Delphic
inscription “ Know Thyself,’ and not have ventured
to affront the ears of so great a man as yourself; for
only to look you in the face, when one meets your
eye, is no easy matter, and it is much less easy to
try to rival you when you wake the harmony of your
unfailing wisdom, seeing that if Pan roused the
echoes with his shrill song everyone would yield him
place, yes, even though it were Aristaeus? himself,
and when Apollo played the lyre everyone would
keep silence, even though he knew the music of
Orpheus. For it is right that the inferior, in so far
as it is inferior, should yield to the superior, that is
if it is to know what is appropriate to itself and
what is not. But he who has conceived the hope of
matching his mortal song with inspired music has
surely never heard of the sad fate of Marsyas the
Phrygian, or of the river which is named after
him and bears witness to the punishment of that
insane flute-player, nor has he heard of the end of
Thamyris, the Thracian who, in an evil hour, strove in
song against the Muses. Need I mention the Sirens,
whose feathers the victorious Muses still wear on
* For Aristaeus see Vergil, Georgics 4; he is a vegetation
deity not usually associated with music.
237
421
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
μετώπου φέρουσιν αἱ νικήσασαι ; ἀλλ᾽ ἐκείνων
μὲν ἕκαστος ἀμούσου τόλμης ἀρκοῦσαν ἔτι καὶ
νῦν ἐκτίνει τῇ μνήμῃ δίκην, ἡμᾶς δὲ ἔδει μέν, ὡς
ἔφην, εἴσω τῶν οἰκείων ὅρων ἑστάναι καὶ τῆς ὑπὸ
σοῦ “μουσικῆς ἐμφορουμένους ἠρεμεῖν, ὥσπερ οἱ
τὴν ᾿Απόλλωνος μαντείαν ἐξ ἀδύτων ἱἑ “ερῶν 7 pot-
οὔσαν ἡσυχῇ δέχονται" ἐπεὶ δ᾽ αὐτὸς ἡμῖν τοῦ
μέλους τὸ ἐνδόσιμον μνηστεύεις καὶ οἷον “Ἑρμοῦ
ῥάβδῳ τῷ παρὰ σαυτοῦ λόγῳ κινεῖς καὶ διεγείρεις
καθεύδοντας, φέρε σοι, καθάπερ οἱ τῷ Διονύσῳ
τὸν θύρσον κρούσαντι πρὸς τὴν χορείαν ἄνετοι
φέρονται, οὕτω καὶ ἡμεῖς ὑπὸ τῷ σῷ πλήκτρῳ τὸ
εἰκὸς ἀντηχήσωμεν, ὥσπερ οἱ τῷ χοροστάτῃ πρὸς
τὸ ἀνάκλημα τοῦ ῥυθμοῦ συνομαρτοῦντες. καὶ
πρῶτόν σοι τῶν λόγων, οὺς βασιλεῖ κελεύσαντι
πρὸς τὴν ἀοίδιμον τοῦ πορθμοῦ ζεῦξιν ἔναγχος
ἐξειργασάμεθα, ἐπειδὴ τοῦτό ἐστί σοι δοκοῦν,
ἀπαρξώμεθα, μικρὰ μὲν ἀντὶ μεγάλων καὶ τῷ ὄντι
χαλκᾶ χρυσῶν ἀντιδιδόντες, οἷς δὲ ἐ ἔχομεν ξενίοις
τὸν ᾿Βρμῆν τὸν ἡμέτερον ἑστιῶντες. πάντως οὐδὲ
τῆς Ἑκάλης ὁ 0 Θησεὺς τοῦ δείπνου τὸ λιτὸν ann:
Eiwoev, ἀλλ᾽ ἤδει Kal μικροῖς ἐς τὸ ἀναγκαῖον
ἀρκεῖσθαι. ὁ Πὰν δὲ ὁ νόμιος τοῦ παιδὸς τοῦ
βουκόλου τὴν σύριγγα προσαρμύσαι τοῖς χείλεσιν
1 Cumont would read ποταμοῦ.
* The Muses, having defeated the Sirens in a singing
competition, tore out “their feathers and wore them as a
symbol of victory.
* Geffcken tries to connect this passage with the order of
Constantius to Julian to send his troops across the Bosporus
en route to Persia. Cumont’s reading ποταμοῦ “ of the river’
supposes that Constantine’s bridge over the Danube in 328 is
238
Se
———— σσστω ψο.
TO IAMBLICHUS
their brows?! But each one of those that I have
named is still even now paying in the tradition the
fitting penalty for his boorishness and temerity, and
I, as I said, ought to have stayed within my own
boundaries and held my peace while I enjoyed my
fill of the music uttered by you, like those who
_ receive in silence the oracle of Apollo when it issues
from the sacred shrine. But since you yourself
furnish me with the keynote of my song, and by your
words, as though with the wand of Hermes, arouse
and wake me from sleep, lo now, even as when
Dionysus strikes his thyrsus his followers—rush
riotous to the dance, so let me too in response to
your plectron make answering music, like those who
accompany the choirmaster, keeping time to the call
of the rhythm. And in the first place let me make a
first-offering to you, since this is your pleasure, of the
speeches which I recently composed at the Emperor's
command in honour of the glorious bridging of the
strait,? though what I offer you is returning small for
great and in very truth bronze for gold®; yet I am
entertaining our Hermes with such fare as I have.
Surely Theseus did not disdain the plain meal that
Hecale * provided, but knew how to content himself
with humble fare when the need arose. Nor was Pan,
the god of shepherds, too proud to set to his lips the
pipe of the boy neat-herd.5 Then do you also in your
meant; cf. Aurelius Victor 41. 18, pons per Danubium
ductus. In my opinion the sophist who wrote this letter
had composed speeches on the stock theme of Xerxes and the
Hellespont. 3 See p. 218.
4 The tale is told in the brief epic of Callimachus, the
Hecale, of which we have fragments; also in Plutarch,
Theseus.
5 Theocritus 1. 128.
239
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
οὐκ ἠτίμασε. προσοῦ δὴ καὶ αὐτὸς τὸν λόγον
εὐμενεῖ νεύματι, καὶ μὴ ἀποκνήσῃς ὀλίγῳ μέλει
μεγάλην ἀκοὴν ἐνδοῦναι. ἀλλ᾽ ἐὰν μὲν ἔχῃ τι
δεξιόν, αὐτός τε ὁ λόγος εὐτυχεῖ καὶ ὁ ποιητὴς
αὐτοῦ τῆς παρὰ τῆς ᾿Αθηνᾶς “ψήφου τὴν μαρτυρίαν
προσλαβών. εἰ δ᾽ ἔτι χειρὸς ἐντελοῦς εἰς τὸ τοῦ
ὅλου πλήρωμα προσδεῖται, μὴ ἀπαξιώσῃς αὐτὸς
τὸ ἐνδέον προσθεῖναι. ἤδη που καὶ ἀνδρὶ τοξότῃ
κληθεὶς ὁ θεὸς παρέστη καὶ συνεφήψατο τοῦ
βέλους, καὶ κιθαρῳδῷ τὸν ὄρθιον ἄδοντι, πρὸς τὸ
ἐλλεῖπον τῆς χορδῆς ὑπὸ τῷ τέττιγι τὸ ἴσον ὁ
Πύθιος ἀντεφθέγξατο.
75
τῷ αὐτῷ *
& .«
Ἢ Ζεῦ, πῶς ἔχει καλῶς ἡμᾶς μὲν ἐν Θράκῃ δι-
ἄγειν. μέσῃ καὶ τοῖς ἐνταῦθα σιροῖς ἐγχειμάξειν,
παρ᾽ Ἰαμβλίχου δὲ τοῦ καλοῦ καθάπερ ἑῴου τινὸς
ἔαρος ἡμῖν τὰς ἐπιστολὰς ἀντὶ χελιδόνων. πέμπε-
σθαι, καὶ “μήτε ἡμῖν εἶναι “μηδέπω παρ᾽ αὐτὸν
ἐλθεῖν μήτ' αὐτῷ παρ᾽ ἡ ἡμᾶς ἥκειν ἐξεῖναι"; τίς ἂν
ἑκὼν εἶναι ταῦτα δέξαιτο, ἐὰν μὴ Θρᾷξ τις ἢ καὶ
Τηρέως ἀντάξιος ;
Ζεῦ ἄνα, ἀλλὰ σὺ ῥῦσαι ἀπὸ Θρήκηθεν
᾽
Αχαιούς"
ποίησον δ᾽ αἴθρην, δὸς δ᾽ ὀφθαλμοῖσιν ἰδέσθαι
1 Hertlein 53, entitled Ἰαμβλίχῳ φιλοσόφῳ.
2 ἥξειν ἐξεῖναι MSS., Horkel would delete; Hertlein ἥκειν
or delete.
240
——
|
) Ὶ
TO IAMBLICHUS ᾿
turn accept my discourse in ἃ gracious spirit and do
not refuse to lend your mighty ear to my humble
strain. But if it has any cleverness at all, then not
only is my discourse itself fortunate but so too is its
author, in that he has obtained the testimony of
Athene’s vote.t And if it still needs a finishing
touch to complete it as a whole, do not refuse to add
to it yourself what it needs. Before now the god in
answer to prayer has stood by the side of a bow-
man and set his hand to the arrow, and again, when
a bard was playing the cithara and singing a high
and stirring strain, the Pythian god, when the string
failed, assumed the guise of a cicada and uttered a
note of the same tone.
7
To the Same
O Zxus, how can it be right that I should spend
my time in the middle of Thrace and winter in the
grain-pits ? here, while from charming lamblichus, as
though from a sort of spring inthe East, letters come
to me like swallows and I cannot yet go to him nor ᾿
can he come to me? Who would be willing to put
up with this unless he were some Thracian and as
bad as Tereus ?3
“Lord Zeus do thou rescue the Achaeans from
Thrace and make clear weather and grant us to see
1 The suffragium Minervae; the proverb is derived from
Aeschylus, Hwmenides, where Athene, by breaking a tie vote, _
saved Orestes. :
3 The phrase is borrowed from Demosthenes, On the
Chersonese 45. 8. Tereus was king of Thrace.
241
VOL, III. R
440
448
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
ποτὲ τὸν ἡμέτερον “Ἑρμῆν καὶ τά τε ἀνάκτορα
αὐτοῦ προσειπεῖν καὶ τοῖς ἕδεσιν ἐμφῦναι, καθάπερ
τὸν Οδυσσέα φασίν, ὃ ὅτε ἐκ τῆς ἄλης τὴν ᾿Ιθάκην
εἶδεν. ἀλλ᾽ ἐκεῖνον μὲν οἱ Φαίακες ἔτι καθεύδοντα
ὥσπερ TL φορτίον ἐκθέμενοι τῆς νεὼς ὥχοντο"
ἡμᾶς δὲ οὐδὲ ὕ ὕπνος αἱρεῖ, μέχρις ἂν σέ, τὸ μέγα
τῆς οἰκουμένης ὄφελος, ἰδεῖν ἐγγένηται. καίτοι
σὺ μὲν τὴν ἑῴαν ὅλην ἐμέ τε καὶ τὸν ἑταῖρον
Σώπατρον εἰς τὴν Θράκην peter ηνοχέναι προσπαί-
ζεις" ἡμῖν δέ, εἰ χρὴ τἀληθὲς εἰπεῖν, ἕως ἂν ἸἸάμ-
βλιχος μὴ παρῇ, Κιμμερίων ἀχλὺς συνοικεῖ.
καὶ σὺ μὲν δυοῖν θάτερον αἰτεῖς, ἢ ἡμᾶς παρὰ
σὲ ἥκειν ἢ αὐτόν σε παρ᾽ ἡμᾶς. ἡμῖν δὲ
τὸ μὲν ἕτερον εὐκταῖόν τε ὁμοῦ καὶ σύμφορον,
αὐτοὺς ἐπανελθεῖν ὡς σὲ καὶ τῶν παρὰ σοὶ
καλῶν ἀπολαῦσαι" τὸ δὲ ἕ ἕτερον εὐχῆς μὲν ἁπάσης
κρεῖττον. ἐπεὶ δὲ ἀδύνατόν σοί γε καὶ ἀξύμφορόν
ἐστι, σὺ μὲν οἴκοι μένειν καὶ αίρειν καὶ τὴν ἡσυ-
χίαν ἣν ἔχεις σώζειν, ἡμεῖς δὲ ὅ,τι ἂν θεὸς διδῷ
γενναίως οἴσομεν. ἀνδρῶν γὰρ ἀγαθῶν εἶναί φασι
τὸ μὲν εὔελπι “κεκτῆσθαι καὶ τὰ δέοντα πράττειν,
ἕπεσθαι δὲ τοῖς ἀναγκαίοις τοῦ δαίμοτος.
10
Τῷ αὐτῷ
ἹἹκανὴν ὁμολογῶ τῆς σῆς ἀπολείψεως ἐκτετι-
κέναι δίκην οὐ μόνον οἷς παρὰ τὴν ἀποδημίαν
1 Hertlein 61.
Julian paraphrases {ας 17. 645.
to
+
te
TO IAMBLICHUS
with our eyes’! our own Hermes some day, and
salute his shrine and embrace his statue as they tell
us Odysseus did when after his wandering he beheld
Ithaca.2— Nay, but he was still asleep when the
Phaeacians unloaded him from their ship like a
piece of freight and went their way; but as for me
sleep can never lay hold on me till it be my lot to
see you that are the benefactor of the whole world.
And yet you say in jest that I and my friend
Sopater have transported the whole East into Thrace.
Yet, if I must speak the truth, Cimmerian gloom
abides with me so long as Iamblichus is not here.
And you demand one of two things, that I should
go to you or that you yourself should come to me.
To my mind one of these alternatives is both
desirable and expedient, I mean that I should go
to you and benefit by the blessings that you bestow,
while the other surpasses all my prayers. But since
this is impossible for you and inexpedient, do you
remain at home and prosper and preserve the
tranquillity that you enjoy, while I will endure with
a brave spirit whatever God may send.’ For we are
told that it is the proof of a good man to keep
hoping for the best, to do his duty and follow his
fate and the will of God.
76
To the Same
I conress that I had paid a full and sufficient
penalty for leaving you, not only in the annoyances
2 Odyssey 13. 354.
3 Cf. Oration 8. 2438p for the same phrase, derived from
Demosthenes, On the Crown 97.
449
D
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
συνηνέχθην ἀνιαροῖς, ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ αὐτῷ τούτῳ
πλέον, ὅτι σου τὸν τοσοῦτον ἀπελείφθην. χρόνον,
καίτοι πολλαῖς καὶ ποικίλαις ͵,πανταχοῦ χρησά-
μενος τύχαις, ὡς μηδὲν ἀπείρατον καταλιπεῖν.
ἀλλὰ καὶ πολέμων θορύβους καὶ πολιορκίας ἀνάγ-
κην καὶ φυγῆς πλάνην καὶ φόβους παντοίους, ἔτι
δὲ χειμώνων ὑπερβολὰς καὶ νόσων κινδύνους καὶ
τὰς ἐκ Ἰ]αννονίας τῆς ἄνω μέχρι τοῦ κατὰ τὸν
Καλχηδόνιον πορθμὸν διάπλου μυρίας δὴ καὶ πολυ-
τρόπους συμφορὰς ὑπομείνας οὐδὲν οὕτω λυπηρὸν
οὐδὲ δυσχερὲς ἐμαυτῷ συμβεβηκέναι φαίην ἂν ὡς
ὅτι σὲ τὸ κοινὸν τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἀγαθὸν ἐ ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον
χρόνον τὴν ἑῴαν ἀπολιπὼν οὐκ εἶδον" ὥστ᾽ εἴπερ
ἀχλύν τινα τοῖς ἐμοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς καὶ νέφος πολὺ
περικεῖσθαι λέγοιμι, μὴ θαυμάσῃς. τότε γὰρ δή
με καὶ ἀὴρ εὔδιος καὶ φέγγος ἡλίου λαμπρότατον
καὶ οἷον ἔαρ ἀληθῶς τοῦ βίου περιέξει κάλλιστον,
ὅταν σὲ τὸ μέγα τῆς οἰκουμένης ἄγαλμα περιπτύ-
ξωμαι καὶ, καθάπερ ἀγαθῷ πατρὶ παῖς γνήσιος € ἐκ
πολέμου τινὸς ἢ διαποντίου κλύδωνος ἀνελπίστως
ὀφθεὶς, εἶ εἶτα ὅσα ἔπαθον καὶ δι᾽ ὅσων ἦλθον κινδύ-
νων εἰπὼν καὶ οἷον ἐπ᾽ ἀγκύρας ἱερᾶς ὁρμιξόμενος
ἀρκοῦσαν ἤδη παραψυχὴν τῶν ἀλγεινῶν εὕρωμαι.
παραμυθεῖται γάρ, ὡς εἰκός, καὶ ἐπικουφίξει τὰς
συμφοράς, ὅταν τις ἃ πέπονθεν εἰς τοὺς ἄλλους
ἔκφορα καθιστὰς διανείμῃ τοῦ πάθους τὴν νῶσιν
év! τῇ κοινωνίᾳ τοῦ λόγου. τέως γε μὴν οἷς ἔχω ”
1 Hertlein would delete ἐν, but see 449p, p. 246.
* Brambs would insert πτέροις after ἔχω; cf. Letter 60.
δύο,
* The reference is probably to Constantine’s march in 323
from Pannonia to Nicomedia by way of the Dardanelles.
244
ee ee
sient emdtinien οτος
TO IAMBLICHUS
that I encountered on my journey, but far more in
the very fact that I have been away from you for so
long, though 1 have indeed endured so many and
various fortunes everywhere, that I have left nothing
untried. But though I have undergone the alarms
of war, the rigour of a siege, the wandering of exile
and all sorts of terrors, and moreover the extreme
cold of winter, the dangers of disease and countless
mischances of many kinds in my journey from Upper
Pannonia till I crossed the Chalcedonian straits,! I
may say that nothing so painful or so distressing has
happened to meas the fact that after I left the East
I have not, for so long a time, seen you, the universal
blessing of the Hellenes. So. do not be surprised if
I say that a sort of mist and thick cloud overshadows
my eyes. For only then will a clear atmosphere and
the brilliant light of the sun, and, so to speak, the
fairest and truest springtime of my life, encompass
me when I can embrace you, the delight and glory
of the whole world, and, like the true son of a noble
father who when hope is given up is seen returning
from war, it may be, or from the stormy billows of the
sea,” can proceed to recount to you all that I have
suffered and what dangers I have been through, and
as I, so to speak, ride safely on a sacred anchor,® can
find at last asufficient consolation for my misfortunes.
For naturally it is a consolation and lightens the
weight of sorrow when one unburdens one’s ex-
periences to others and shares with them the know-
ledge of one’s sufferings in the intercourse of speech.
Meanwhile, however, with what means I have I will,
2 For a similar idea cf. Julian, 70 the Athenians, Vol. 2,
Wright, 2850, p. 285.
3 Cf. ancoram sacram (or ultimam) solvere, a proverb
implying the use of what has been kept in reserve,
245
446
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
σε κατὰ δύναμιν τὴν ἐμὴν μέτειμι" καὶ γὰρ οὐ
παύσομαι τὸν ἐν μέσῳ τῆς ἀπολείψεως χρόνον ἐν
τῷ τῶν γραμμάτων θεραπεύων συνθήματι. εἰ i δὲ δὴ
καὶ ἀντιτύχοιμι παρὰ σοῦ τῶν ἴσων, ὑφήσω τί καὶ
μικρόν, οἷον ἀντὶ σωτηρίου. τινὸς συμϑόλου * τοῖς
σοῖς ὁμιλῶν. γράμμασι. σὺ δὲ δέχοιο μὲν εὐμενῶς
τὰ Tap ἡμῶν, παρέχοις δὲ καὶ σεαυτὸν εἰς ἀμοι-
βὴν εὐμενέστερον, ὡς ὅ τι ἄν σημήνῃς καλὸν
ἢ γράψῆς, τοῦτο ἀντὶ τῆς “Ἑρμοῦ λογίου φωνῆς
ἢ τῆς ᾿Ασκληπιοῦ χειρὸς παρ᾽ ἡμῶν κρίνεται.
Fa
Τῴ αὐτῷ "
Ἦλθες ean ἐπόησας" ἦλθες γὰρ δὴ καὶ ἀπὼν
οἷς γράφεις" ‘ “ἐγὼ δέ σε μαόμαν, ἂν δ᾽ ἔφλεξας
ἐμὰν φρένα καιομέναν πόθῳ." οὔκουν οὔτε
ἀρνοῦμαι τὸ φίλτρον οὔτε ἀπολείπω σε κατ᾽ οὐδέν
ἀλλὰ καὶ ὡς παρόντα τῇ ψυχῇ θεωρῶ καὶ ἀπόντι
σύνειμι, καὶ οὐδὲν ἱκανόν ἐστί μοι πρὸς κόρον
ἀρκέσαι. καίτοι σύ γε οὐκ ἀνίης καὶ παρόντας
εὖ ποιῶν ἀεὶ καὶ ἀπόντας οὐκ εὐφραίνων μόνον
οἷς γράφεις, ἀλλὰ καὶ σώζων. ὅτε γοῦν ἀπήγ-
1 Hertlein, following Reiske, συμβούλου but the reading of
the MSS., συμβόλον echoes συνθήματι above and should be
retained.
® Hertlein 60, with title Ἰαμβλίχῳ.
8. Reiske first recognized this quotation from Sappho not
found elsewhere: MSS., Hertlein καὶ ἐποίησα:--- ἔγὼ δέ σε
μὰ ἐμὰν ἄν δὲ φύλαξας; Reiske ἐγὼ δέ σ᾽ ἐματεύμαν (for
ἐματευόμην), τὺ δ᾽ ἐψάλαξας- ἐμὰν φρένα ; Wesseling ἄν δ᾽
ἔφλεξας ; Spanheim ἐμὰν ἄν δ᾽ ἐφύλαξας ; Petavius ἔμαν ἄν δὲ
246
—— ee
TO IAMBLICHUS
so far as I can approach you; and indeed I shall not
cease, for the whole period of our separation, to con-
ciliate you with letters by way of a token. And if I
only receive the like from you, I shall be somewhat
more submissive and shall hold converse with your
letters, regarding them as a sort of symbol that you
are safe and well. Do you, then, graciously accept
what arrives from me, and show yourself still more
gracious in making requital, since every noble utter-
ance of yours, every written word, is reckoned by
me as equivalent to the voice of Hermes the god of
eloquence, or to the hand of Asclepius.}
77
To the Same
“Trou hast come! well hast thou done!” You
have indeed come, even though absent, by means of
your letter—“ And I was yearning for thee, and
thou didst set ablaze my heart, already aflame with
longing for thee.’’? Nay, I neither refuse the love-
philtre nor do I ever leave you at all, but with my
soul I behold you as though you were present, and
am with you when absent, and nothing is enough to
quench my insatiate desire. Moreover, you also
never slacken, but without ceasing you benefit those
who are present with you and by your letters not
only cheer but even heal those who are absent. At
1 See Letter 79. 406}.
2 The quotations are from an ode of Sappho and perhaps
run through the whole letter ; see critical note.
φύλαξας. I give the version of Bidez. For ἔφλεξας Wila-
mowitz ἔφλυξας, cf. Isyllus 120; ἂν δ᾽ ἔψυξας Thomas,
247
447
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
γειλέ μοί τίς ἔναγχος, ὡς παρὰ σοῦ γράμματα
κομίσας ἑταῖρος ἥκοι, ἐτύγχανον μὲν ἐν ἀηδίᾳ
τοῦ στομάχου τριταῖος ἤδη καθεστὼς καί. τι
καὶ περιανγῶς ἔχων τοῦ σώματος, ὡς μηδὲ ἔξω
πυρετοῦ μεῖναι" σημανθὲν δέ, ὡς ἔφην, ὅτι μοι
πρὸς ταῖς θύραις ὁ τὰ γράμματα ἔχων εἴη, ἐγὼ
μὲν ὥσπερ τις ἀκρατὴς ἑαυτοῦ καὶ κάτοχος
ἀναπηδήσας nea πρὶν ὅ τι δέοι παρεῖναι. ἐπεὶ
δὲ καὶ ἔλαβον εἰς χεῖρας τὴν ἐπιστολὴν μόνον,
ὀμνύω τοὺς θεοὺς αὐτοὺς καὶ τὸν ἐπὶ σοί με
ἀνάψαντα πόθον, ὡς ἅμα τε ἔφυγον οἱ πόνοι καί
με καὶ ὁ πυρετὸς ἀνῆκεν εὐθύς, ὥσπερ τινὶ τοῦ
σωτῆρος ἐναργεῖ παρουσίᾳ δυσωπούμενος. ὡς δὲ
καὶ λύσας ἀνέγνων, τίνα με ἡγῇ ψυχὴν ἐσχη-
κέναι τότε ἢ πόσης ἡδονῆς ἀνάπλεων γεγενῆσθαι,
τὸν φίλτατον, ὡς φής, ἀνέμων, τὸν ἐρωτικὸν
ἀληθῶς, τὸν διάκονον τῶν καλῶν ὑπερεπαινοῦντά
τε καὶ φιλοῦντα δικαίως, ὅ ὅτι μοι τῶν παρὰ σοῦ
γραμμάτων ὑπηρέτης γέγονεν, οἱονεὶ * πτηνοῦ
δίκην ἡμῖν τὴν ἐπιστολὴν διευθύνας οὐρίῳ τε καὶ
πομπίμῳ πνεύματι, δι’ ἧς οὐ μόνον. ὑπῆρξεν
ἡσθῆναί μοι τὰ εἰκότα “περὶ σοῦ γνόντι, ἀχλὰ
καὶ αὐτῷ κάμνοντι παρὰ σοῦ σωθῆναι ; τά γε
μὴν ἄλλα πῶς ἃ πρῶτον" πρὸς τὴν ἐπιστολὴν
ἔπαθον εἴποιμ᾽ ἄν, ἢ πῶς ἂν ἀρκούντως ἐμαυτοῦ τὸν
ἔρωτα καταμηνύσαιμι ; ποσάκις ἀνέδραμον εἰς
ἀρχὴν ἐκ μέσου; ποσάκις ἔδεισα μὴ πληρώσας
λάθω; ποσάκις ὥσπερ ἐν κύκλῳ τινὶ καὶ
' Hertlein following Hercher would delete οἱονεί, but it
oceurs with δίκην too often to be an oversight ; see p 218, note.
* For ἃ πρῶτον Hertlein suggests ἅπερ, Hercher would
delete πρῶτον.
248
TO IAMBLICHUS
any rate, when someone not long ago gave me the
news that a friend had come and brought letters
from you, it happened that for three days 1 had
been suffering from a disorder of the stomach, and
in fact I was in acute physical pain, so that I was
not even free from fever. But, as I said, when I was
told that the person who had the letters was at my
door I jumped up like one possessed, who has lost
control of himself, and rushed out before what I
wanted could arrive. And the moment that I
merely took the letter in my hands, I swear by the
very gods and by the love that burns in me for you,
that instant my pains forsook me and at once the
fever let me go, as though it were abashed by some
manifest saving presence. But when I broke the seal.
and read the letter, can you imagine what feelings
took possession of my soul at that moment or with
what delight I was filled, or how I praised to the
skies that dearest of winds,! to quote your words,
the lover’s wind in very truth, the messenger of
glad tidings—and loved it with good reason, since it
had done me this service of bringing a letter from
you, and like a winged thing had guided straight to
me, with a fair and hurrying blast, that letter which
brought me not only the pleasure of hearing good
news of you but also salvation at your hands in my
own illness? But how could I describe my other
sensations when first I read the letter, or how could
I find adequate words to betray my own passion?
How often did I hark back from the middle to the
beginning? How often did I fear that I should finish
it before I was aware? How often, as though I
1 An echo of Sophocles, Philoctetes 237 τίς προσήγαγεν ;
. τίς ἀνέμων ὁ φίλτατος ;
249
4418
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
στροφῆς περιόδῳ τοῦ συμπεράσματος τὸ πλή-
ρωμα πρὸς τὴν ἀρχὴν ἀνεῖλκον, οἷον ἐν ἄσματι
μουσικῷ ταὐτὸν τοῦ ῥυθμοῦ τῷ τέλει. τὸ πρὸς τὴν
ἀρχὴν ἡγούμενον μέλος ἀντιδιδούς' ἢ καὶ νὴ Δία
τὰ ἑξῆς τούτων, ὁσάκις μὲν τῷ “στόματι τὴν
ἐπιστολὴν προσήγαγον, ὥσπερ αἱ μητέρες τὰ
παιδία περιπλέκονται, ὁσάκις δὲ ἐνέφυν τῷ
στόματι καθάπερ ἐρωμένην ἐμαυτοῦ φιλτάτην
ἀσπαζόμενος, ὁσάκις δὲ τὴν ἐπιγραφὴν αὐτήν, ἣ
χειρὶ σῇ καθάπερ ἐναργεῖ σφραγῖδι ἐσεσήμαντο,
προσειπὼν καὶ φιλήσας, εἶτα ἐπέβαλον τοῖς
ὀφθαλμοῖς, οἱονεὶ τοῖς τῆς ἱερᾶς ἐκείνης δεξιᾶς
δακτύλοις τῷ τῶν γραμ μάτων ἴχνει προσπεφυκώς.
χαῖρε δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς ἡμῖν πολλά, καθάπερ ἡ καλὴ
Σαπφώ φησι, καὶ οὐκ ἰσάριθμα μόνον. τῷ χρόνῳ,
ὃν XM OV ἀπελείφθημεν," ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ ἀεὶ
χαῖρε, καὶ γράφε καὶ μέμνησο ἡμῶν τὰ εἰκότα.
ὡς lowe γε οὐκ ἐπιλείψει χρόνος, ἐν ᾧ σε μὴ
πάντη ὃ καὶ ἐν παντὶ “καιρῷ καὶ λόγῳ διὰ μνήμης
ἕξομεν. ἀλλ᾽ ἡμῖν εἴ ποθι Ζεὺς δοίη ἱκέσθαι ἐς
πατρίδα γαῖαν, καί σου τὴν ἱερὰν ἐκείνην ἑστίαν
αὖθις ὑπέλθοιμεν, μὴ φείσῃ λοιπὸν ὡς φυγάδος,
ἀλλὰ δῆσον, εἰ δοκεῖ, πρὸς τοῖς σεαυτοῦ θώκοις
τοῖς φιλτάτοις, ὥσπερ τινὰ Μουσῶν λιποτάκτην
ἑλών, εἶτα τοῖς εἰς τιμωρίαν ἀρκοῦσι παιδεύων.
πάντως οὐδὲ ἄκων ὑποστήσομαι τὴν δίκην, ANN’
ἑκὼν δὴ καὶ χαίρων, ὥσπερ ἀγαθοῦ πατρὸς
' περιπλέκονται Hertlein suggests, προσπλέκονται MSS.
* Blass in Cl. Philology I. p. 253 reconstructs a fragment
of Sappho, as follows: χαῖρε πολλά τέ μοι καὶ ἰσάριθμα τῷ
χρόνῳ, ὃν σεθεν. . ἀπελειπόμαν.
250
OO a
TO IAMBLICHUS
were going round ina circle in the evolutions of a
strophe,! did I try to connect the contents of the
last paragraph with the first, just as though in a
song set to music I were making the leading note
of the beginning the same as the closing bars of the
measure? Or how describe what I did next—how
often I held the letter to my lips, as mothers
embrace their children, how often I kissed it with
those lips as though I were embracing my dearest
sweetheart, how often I invoked and kissed and held
to my eyes even the superscription which had been
signed by your own hand as though by a clear cut
seal, and how I clung to the imprint of the letters
as I should to the fingers of that sacred right hand of
yours! I too “ wish thee joy in full measure,’ ? as fair
Sappho says, and not only “ for just so long as we have
been parted from one another,’ but may you rejoice
evermore, and write to me and remember me with
kindly thoughts. For no time shall ever pass by me
in which I shall forget you, in any’place, at any hour,
in any word I speak. “ But if ever Zeus permits
me to return to my native land,’*® and once more
I humbly approach that sacred hearth of yours, do
not spare me hereafter as you would a runaway, but
fetter me, if you will, to your own beloved dwelling,
making me captive like a deserter from the Muses,
and then discipline me with such penalties as suffice
for my punishment. Assuredly I shall submit to your
jurisdiction not unwillingly, but with a good will and
1 e.g. in the chorus of the drama.
2 Frag. 85, Bergk. 3 Odyssey 4. 475.
3 πάντη Hercher suggests, πάντα Hertlein, MSS.
4 ἀλλ᾽ ἡμῖν ef Hertlein suggests ; ἀλλήλων δὲ MSS.
251
416
D
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
ἡπανόρθ θῆ καὶ 5 88 δή
ἐπανόρθωσιν προμηθῆ καὶ σωτήριον. εἰ δὲ δή
᾽ “
μοι καὶ κατ᾽ ἐμαυτοῦ τὴν κρίσιν ἐθέλοις πισ-
ἴω / n ,
τεῦσαι καὶ διδοίης ἐνεγκεῖν ἣν βούλομαι, ἐμαυτόν,
ὦ γενναῖε, τῷ σῷ χιτωνίσκῳ προσάψαιμε . ἂν
c / t/ \ \ 5 / > .
ἡδέως, ἵνα σου κατὰ μηδὲν ἀπολειποίμην, ἀλλὰ
, na , “
συνείην ἀεὶ καὶ πανταχῆ προσφεροίμην, ὥσπερ
οὺς οἱ μῦθοι διφυεῖς ἀνθρώπους πλάττουσιν. εἰ
μὴ κἀκεῖνο οἱ μῦθοι λέγουσι μὲν ὡς παίζοντες,
ee 4 \ > \ “ / 5 7 ’ “
αἰνίττονται δὲ εἰς τὸ τῆς φιλίας ἐξαίρετον, ἐν τῷ
“ ’ A - lel
τῆς κοινωνίας δεσμῷ τὸ δι᾿ ἑκατέρου τῆς ψυχῆς
ς \ ,
ὁμογενὲς ἐμφαίνοντες.
78
Τῷ αὐτῷ
Αἰσθάνομαί σου τῆς ἐν τῇ μέμψει γλυκύτητος,
καὶ ὡς ἑκάτερον ἐξ ἴσου πράττεις, καὶ οἷς γράφεις
τιμῶν καὶ οἷς ἐγκαλεῖς παιδεύων. ἐγὼ δὲ εἰ μέν
TL συνήδειν ἐμαυτῷ τοῦ πρὸς σὲ γιγνομένου καὶ
κατὰ μικρὸν ἐλλιπόντι, πάντως ἢ προφάσεις
εὐλόγους εἰπὼν ἐπειρώμην ἂν τὴν μέμψιν
ἐκκλίνειν, ἢ συγγνώμην ἁμαρτὼν αἰτεῖν οὐκ
᾽ / , \ \ 5" > / = 4
ἠρνούμην, ἐπεὶ μηδὲ ἄλλως ἀσύγγνωστον οἶδά
σε πρὸς τοὺς σούς, εἴ τι τῶν πρὸς σὲ φιλικῶν
ἐξήμαρτον ἄκοντες. νῦν dé: οὐ γὰρ ἣν οὔτε σὲ
n , "᾿ ta “Ὁ > an “ ͵ὔ
παροφθῆναι θέμις οὔτε ἡμᾶς ἀμελεῖν, ἵνα τύ-
1 Hertlein 40, with title Ἰαμβλίχφ.
252
TO IAMBLICHUS
gladly, as to a kind father’s provident and salutary
correction. Moreover, if you would consent to trust
me to sentence myself and allow me to suffer the
penalty that I prefer, I would gladly fasten myself
to your tunic, my noble friend, so that I might never
for a moment leave your side but be with you always
and closely attached to you wherever you are, like
those two-bodied beings invented in the myths.
Unless, indeed, in this case also the myths, though
they tell us the story in jest, are describing in
enigmatical words an extraordinary sort of friend-
ship and by that close tie of a common being
express the kinship of soul in both beings.
78
To the Same.
I am sensible of the sweet-tempered manner in
which you reproach me, and that you achieve two
things with equal success, for you do me honour by
what you write and instruct me by your criticisms.
And for my part, if I were conscious of even the least
failure in the attention due to you, I should certainly
try by making reasonable excuses to parry your
criticism, or if I were in fault I should not hesitate
to ask your forgiveness, especially as I know that you
are not implacable towards your friends when they
have involuntarily failed in some friendly office to
you. But as it is—since it was not right either for
you to be neglected or for me to be careless if we
1 For Julian’s allegorising interpretation of myths see
Oration, 5. 170; 7. 2160, 222c; and for the illustration here
Lucian, Toxaris 62.
253
417
B
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
χοιμεν ὧν ἀεὶ ζητοῦντες ποθοῦμεν" φέρε σοι
καθάπερ ἐ ἐν ὅρῳ γραφῆς ἀπολογήσωμαι, καὶ δείξω
μηδὲν ἐμαυτὸν ὧν ἐχρῆν εἰς σὲ παριδεῖν, ἀλλὰ
μηδὲ μελλῆσαι τολμήσαντα.
Ἦλθον ἐκ Ilavvovias ἤδη τρίτον ἔτος τουτί,
μόλις ἀφ᾽ ὧν οἶσθα κινδύνων καὶ πόνων σωθείς.
ὑπερβὰς δὲ τὸν Καλχηδόνιον πορθμὸν καὶ ἐπιστὰς
τῇ Νικομήδους πόλει Tol πρώτῳ καθάπερ πατρίῳ
θεῷ τὰ πρωτόλεια τῶν ἐμαυτοῦ σώστρων ἀπέ-
δωκα, σύμβολον. τῆς ἀφί ξεως τῆς ἐμῆς οἷον ἀντ᾽
ἀναθήματος ἱ ἱεροῦ τὴν εἰς σὲ πρόσρησιν ἐκπέμπων.
καὶ ἣν ὁ κομίζων τὰ γρώμματα τῶν βασιλείων
ὑπασπιστῶν εἷς, ᾿Ιουλιανὸς ὄνομα, Βακχύλου
παῖς, ᾿Απαμεὺς τὸ γένος, ᾧ διὰ τοῦτο μάλιστα
τὴν ἐπιστολὴν ἐνεχείριζον, ὅτι καὶ πρὸς ὑμᾶς
ἥξειν καί σε ἀκριβῶς εἰδέναι καθυπισχνεῖτο.
μετὰ ταῦτά μοι καθάπερ ἐξ ᾿Απόλλωνος ἱερὸν
ἐφοίτα παρὰ σοῦ γράμμα, τὴν ἄφιξιν τὴν ἡμε-
τέραν “ἀσμένως σε ἀκηκοέναι δηλοῦν' ἣν δὲ
τοῦτο ἐμοὶ δεξιὸν οἰώνισμα καὶ χρηστῶν ἐλπίδων
ἀρχή, ᾿Ἰάμβλιχος ὁ σοφὸς καὶ τὰ ᾿Ιαμβλίχου
πρὸς ἡμᾶς γράμματα. τί με δεῖ λέγειν ὅπως
ηὐφράνθην ἢ ἃ περὶ τὴν ἐπιστολὴν ἔπαθον
σημαίνειν ; εἰ γὰρ ἐδέξω τὰ παρ᾽ ἡμῶν ἕνεκα
τούτων γραφέντα" ἣν δὲ δι ἡμεροδρόμου τῶν
ἐκεῖθεν ἡκόντων ὡς σὲ πεμφθέντα" πάντως ἂν
ὁπόσην ἐπ᾽ αὐτοῖς ἡδονὴν ἔσχον ἀφ᾽ ὧν ἐδήλουν.
ἐγίνωσκες. πάλιν ἐπανιόντος οἴκαδε τοῦ τροφέως
* Constantine marched from Pannonia to Nicomedia in 323,
so perhaps this letter can be dated 326. In Julian’s authentic
writings we always find Paeonia for Pannonia ; see Letter 76,
p. 244, for a reference to this journey.
254
TO IAMBLICHUS
were to attain that which we ever seek after and
desire—come, I will plead my case before you as
though by the rules of a lawsuit, and I will prove
that far from having neglected any of my duties
towards you I have never even ventured to post-
pone them.
It is now three years since I arrived from Pannonia,!
with difficulty escaping safely from the dangers and
troubles that you know of. When I had crossed the
Chalcedonian strait and approached the city of
Nicomedia, to you first as though to the god of my
fathers I paid vows as the first thank-offering for my
deliverance, by sending you as a token of my arrival
my salutation in place ‘of a sacred offering. ‘The man
who took charge of my letter was one of the imperial
guard named Julian, the son of Bacchylus, a native of
Apamea, and to him I all the more readily entrusted
the letter because he asserted that he was going in ~
your direction and that he knew you very well.
Afterwards, as though from Apollo, a sacred letter
came to me from you, in which you declared that
you had been pleased to hear of my arrival. This
was to my mind an auspicious omen and a fount of
fairest hopes,—Iamblichus the wise and the letter of
Iamblichus to me. Need I say how I rejoiced or
assure you how deeply I was moved by your letter?
For if you had received what I wrote to you with
no other purpose—and it was sent to you by one of
the couriers who came from where you are,—you
would certainly know from what I then said how great
was the pleasure that I felt on receiving it. Again,
when the custodian of my children*? was returning
* This phrase is perhaps metaphorical ; see p. 214, note 1,
255
D
418
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
TOV ἐμαυτοῦ παιδίων, ἑτέρων ἦρχον πρὸς σὲ
γραμμάτων, ὁμοῦ καὶ τὴν ἐπὶ τοῖς φθάνουσι
χάριν ὁμολογῶν καὶ πρὸς τὸ ἑξῆς ἐν ἴσῳ παρὰ
σοῦ τὴν ἀντίδοσιν αἰτῶν. μετὰ ταῦτα ᾿ἐπρέσ-
βευσεν ὡς ἡμᾶς ὁ καλὸς Σώπατρος" ἐγὼ δὲ ὡς
ἔγνων, εὐθὺς ἀναπηδήσας ἦξα καὶ “περιπλακεὶς
ἐδάκρυον ὑφ᾽ ἡδονῆς, οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἢ σὲ καὶ τὰ
παρὰ σοῦ πρὸς ἡμᾶς ὀνειροπολῶν γράμματα.
ὡς δὲ ἔλαβον, ἐφίλουν καὶ τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς προσῆ-
γον, καὶ ἀπρὶξ εἰχόμην, ὥσπερ δεδιὼς μὴ λάθῃ
με ἀποπτὰν ἐν τῇ τῶν γραμμάτων ἀναγνώσει τὸ
τῆς σῆς εἰκόνος ἴνδαλμα. καὶ δὴ καὶ “ἀντέγραφον
εὐθύς, οὐ πρὸς σὲ μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς τὸν ἱ ἱερὸν
Σώπατρον, τὸν ἐκείνου παῖδα, καθάπερ θρυπτό-
μενος ὅτι τὸν κοινὸν ἑταῖρον ἐκ τῆς ᾿Απαμείας
οἷον ἐ ἐνέχυρον τῆς ὑμετέρας ἀπουσίας ἀντειληφότες
εἴημεν. ἐξ ἐκείνου τρίτην ἤδη πρὸς σὲ γεγραφώς,
αὐτὸς οὐδεμίαν ἄλλην ἢ τὴν ἐν 7 μέμφεσθαι δοκεῖς
ἐπιστολὴν ἐδεξάμην.
Ki μὲν δὴ διὰ τοῦτο ἐγκαλεῖς, | ἵνα τῷ τῆς αἰτίας
σχήματι πλείονας ἡμῖν ἀφορμὰς τοῦ γράφειν προ-
ξενῇς, δέχομαι τὴν μέμψιν ἄσμενος πάνυ, καὶ ἐν
οἷς λαμβάνω τὸ πᾶν τῆς χάριτος εἰς ἐμαυτὸν
οἰκειοῦμαι" εἰ δὲ ὡς ἀληθῶς ἐλλιπόντα τι τοῦ
πρὸς σὲ καθήκοντος αἰτιᾷ, τίς ἂν ἐμοῦ γένοιτ᾽ ἂν
ἀθλιώτερος 1 διὰ γραμματοφόρων ἀδικίαν ἢ ῥᾳ-
1 Nauck, Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, "Adespota 280
suggests τίς dp’; Schmidt τίς ἀντ. The verse does not occur
elsewhere, but cf. Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus 815 τίς τοῦ-
δε viv ἔστ᾽ ἀνδρὸς ἀθλιώτερος ;
+ This may be the Sopater whom Julian mentions in Letter
256
TO IAMBLICHUS
home, I began another letter to you in which I at the
same time spoke to you of my gratitude for your
previous favours and begged for a like return from.
you for the immediate future. After this the
excellent Sopater! came on an embassy to our city.
When I recognised him I at once started up and
flew to him and when I had embraced him I wept
for joy, dreaming of nothing else but you and a letter
from you tome. And when I received it I kissed it
and held it to my eyes and kept tight hold of it as
though I were afraid that while I was in the act of
reading your letter the phantom of your image might
elude me and fly away. And, moreover, I at once
wrote an answer, not to you only but also to the
revered Sopater, that great man’s son, telling him,
as though giving myself airs, that I accepted our
mutual friend from Apamea as a sort of hostage for
your absence. This is the third letter that I have
written to you since that time, but I have myself
received no other letter from you save that in which
you seem to reproach me.
Now if you are accusing me merely for the purpose
of providing me with further motives for writing to
you, and only pretend to reproach me, then I am
very glad to receive your criticism, and in this very
letter that has now come I take to myself the whole
of the kindness implied. But if you really accuse me
of being in any way remiss in my duty to you, “ who
could be more wretched than I’ 2 through the wrong-
doing or negligence of letter-carriers, when I, least
58 To Libanius, Ὁ. 207. But he is more probably the elder
Sopater who was executed by Constantine.
5. An iambic trimeter whose source is not known; see
critical note.
257.
VOL, Ill, 8
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
/
C θυμίαν πάντων ἥκιστα ἀξίου τούτου τυγχάνειν
419
ὄντος ; 1 καίτοι ἐγὼ μέν, κἂν μὴ πλεονάκις γράφω,
δίκαιός εἰμι συγγνώμης παρὰ σοῦ τυγχάνειν" οὐ
τῆς ἀσχολίας ἣν ἐν χερσὶν ἔχω φαίην ἄν' μὴ
γὰρ οὕτω πράξαιμι κακῶς, ὡς μὴ καὶ ἀσχολίας
ἁπάσης, καθά φησι Πίνδαρος, τὸ κατὰ σὲ κρεῖτ-
Tov ἡγεῖσθαι: ἀλλ᾽ ὅτι πρὸς ἄνδρα τηλικοῦτον,
οὗ καὶ μνησθῆναι φόβος, ὁ καὶ γράφειν κατοκνῶν
τοῦ πλέον ἢ προσήκει θαρροῦντός ἐστι σωφρονέ-
στερος. ὥσπερ γὰρ οἱ ταῖς Ἡλίου μαρμαρυγαῖς
ἀντιβλέπειν συνεχῶς τολμῶντες, ἂν μὴ θεῖοΐ τινες
ὧσι καὶ τῶν ἀκτίνων αὐτοῦ καθάπερ οἱ τῶν
ἀετῶν γνήσιοι καταθαρρῶσιν, οὔτε ἃ μὴ θέμις
ὀφθῆναι θεωρεῖν ἔχουσι, καὶ ὅσῳπερ μᾶλλον
φιλονεικοῦσι, τοσούτῳ πλέον ὅτι μὴ δύνανται
τυχεῖν ἐμφαίνουσιν, οὕτω καὶ ὁ πρὸς σὲ γράφειν
τολμῶν, ὅσῳπερ ἂν ἐθέλῃ θαρρεῖν, τοσούτῳ
μᾶλλον ὅτι χρὴ δεδιέναι καθαρῶς δείκνυσι. σοί
γε μήν, ὦ γενναῖε, παντὸς ὡς εἰπεῖν τοῦ Ἔλ-
ληνικοῦ σωτῆρι καθεστῶτι, πρέπον ἣν ἀφθόνως
τε ἡμῖν γράφειν καὶ τὸν παρ᾽ ἡμῖν ὄκνον ἐφ᾽ ὅσον
ἐξὴν καταστέλλειν. ὥσπερ γὰρ ὁ “λιος" ἵνα δὴ
πάλιν ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ πρός σε τὴν εἰκόνα λάβῃ ὁ
λόγος" ὁ δ᾽ οὖν “Ἥλιος ὥσπερ, ὅταν ἀκτῖσι κα-
θαραῖς ὅλος λάμπῃ, οὐδὲν ἀποκρίνει τοῦ πρὸς
τὴν αἴγλην ἐλθόντος, ἀλλὰ τὸ οἰκεῖον ἐργάζεται,
1 ἀξίου τούτου τυγχάνειν ὄντος Hertlein suggests; τούτου
τυγχάνοντος MSS., τυγχάνειν Reiske.
25ὃ
ae
TO IAMBLICHUS
of all men, deserve the reproach? And yet even if I
do not write oftener I may well claim indulgence
from you—I do not mean because of the many affairs
which I have on my hands—for may I never sink so
low as not to count you more important than any
business whatever, as Pindar! says!—but because
there is more wisdom in hesitating to write more
than is fitting to so great a man as yourself, whom
one cannot so much as think of without awe, than in
being too presumptuous. For even as those who
venture, to gaze steadily at the bright beams of
Helios, unless indeed they be in some sort divine
and like the genuine offspring of eagles? can brave
his rays, are unable to behold what is not lawful for
their eyes to see, and the more they strive for this
the more do they show that they have not the
power to attain it, even so, I say, he who ventures to
write to you shows clearly that the more he allows
himself to presume the more he ought to be afraid.
For you, however, my noble friend, who have been
appointed as the saviour, so to speak, of the whole
Hellenic world, it would have been becoming not
only to write to me without stint, but also to allay
as far as you could the scruples felt by me. For as
Helios—if my argument may again employ in reference
to you a simile from the god,—even as Helios, I say,
when he shines in full splendour with his brilliant
rays rejects naught of what encounters his beams,
1 Isthmian Odes 1. 1 τὸ τεόν. . . πρᾶγμα καὶ ἀσχολίας
ὑπέρτερον θήσομαι.
2 For this allusion to the eagle’s test of its offspring see
Letter ὅθ, To Maximus; Themistius 240c; Lucian, Jearo-
menippus 14; Claudian, On the Third Consulship of Honorius,
Preface 1-14.
259
B
420
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
Ὁ \ \ \ a b I fal ‘ \ a
οὕτω δὲ Kal σὲ χρῆν ἀφθόνως τῶν Tapa σοῦ
-“ / Ἁ
καλῶν οἷον φωτὸς τὸ ᾿Ελληνικὸν ἐπαρδεύοντα μὴ
n fal nr \
ἀποκνεῖν, εἴ τις ἢ αἰδοῦς ἢ δέους ἕνεκα τοῦ πρὸς
\ \ > / la 2Q\ 4 Rye
σὲ τὴν ἀντίδοσιν δυσωπεῖται. οὐδὲ yap ὁ ᾿Ασ-
a ,
κληπιὸς ἐπ᾽ ἀμοιβῆς ἐλπίδι τοὺς ἀνθρώπους
tA ᾽ Ν \ 5 rn ’ an /
ἰᾶται, ἀλλὰ τὸ οἰκεῖον αὐτῷ φιλανθρώπευμα
lal an \ A
πανταχοῦ πληροῖ. ὃ δὴ Kal σὲ χρῆν ὡσπερεὶ
ψυχῶν ἐλλογίμων ἰατρὸν ὄντα ποιεῖν καὶ το τῆς
ἀρετῆς παράγγελμα διὰ πάντων σώζειν, οἷον
> \ / tA x \ \ > / »
ἀγαθὸν τοξότην, ὅς, κἂν μὴ τὸν ἀντίπαλον ἔχη,
πάντως ἐς τὸ καίριον ἀεὶ τὴν χεῖρα γυμνάζει.
ἐπεὶ μηδὲ ὁ σκοπὸς ἑκατέροις ὁ αὐτός, ἡμῖν
δὲ τῶν παρὰ σοῦ δεξιῶν τυχεῖν καὶ σοὶ τοῖς
> e n Ὁ 7 > lal 9 2 e n xX
Tap ἡμῶν διδομένοις ἐντυχεῖν. ἀλλ᾽ ἡμεῖς, κἂν
n a \
μυριάκις γράφωμεν, ἴσα τοῖς “Opnptxots παισὶ
/ ᾿ - δ “Ὁ
παΐζομεν, οὗ παρὰ τὰς θῖνας ὅτι ἂν ἐκ πηλοῦ
πλάσωσιν ἀφιᾶσιν κλύζεσθαι; παρὰ σοῦ δὲ καὶ
μικρὸν γράμμα παντός ἔστι γονίμου ῥεύματος
a \ , x ” ? ,
κρεῖττον, καὶ δεξαίμην ἂν ἔγωγε ᾿Ιαμβλίχου
“ ᾽ \ , Ἃ \ b] , \
μᾶλλον ἐπιστολὴν μίαν ἢ τὸν ἐκ Λυδίας χρυσὸν
κεκτῆσθαι. εἰ δὲ μέλει τί σοι τῶν ἐραστῶν τῶν
σῶν" μέλει δέ, εἰ μὴ σφάλλομαι' μὴ περιΐδῃς
ὥσπερ νεοττοὺς ἡμᾶς ἀεὶ τῶν παρὰ σοῦ τροφῶν
ἐν χρείᾳ τυγχάνοντας, ἀλλὰ καὶ γράφε συνεχῶς
καὶ τοῖς παρὰ σαυτοῦ καλοῖς ἑστιᾶν μὴ κατόκνει.
κἂν ἐλλίπωμεν, αὐτὸς ἑκατέρου τὴν χρείαν οἰκειοῦ,
κ Φ / \ @ > al, 5 n Ἂν » /,
καὶ ὧν δίδως καὶ ὧν ἀνθ᾽ ἡμῶν τὸ ἴσον πρεσβεύεις.
/ Ἃ a
πρέπει δὲ “Ἑρμοῦ Noyiov μαθητήν, εἰ δὲ βούλει
260
TO IAMBLICHUS
but ever performs his function, so ought you also not
to shrink from bountifully pouring forth the flood of
your blessings like light over the Hellenic world even
when, whether from modesty, or fear of you, one is
too bashful to make any return. Asclepius, again,
does not heal mankind in the hope of repayment, but
everywhere fulfils his own function of beneficence to
mankind. This, then, you ought to do also, as
though you were the physician of souls endowed
with eloquence, and you ought to keep up on all
oceasions the preaching of virtue, like a skilled
archer who,even though he have no opponent, keeps
training his hand by every means in view of future
need. For in truth we two have not the same
ambition, since mine is to secure the wise teachings
that flow from you and yours is to read letters sent
by me. But as for me, though 1 should write ten
thousand times, mine is still mere child’s play, and
I am like the boys in Homer who on the sea-shores
model something in wet sand and then abandon it
all for the sea to wash away; whereas even a short
letter from you is more potent than any fertilising
flood, and for my part I would rather receive one
letter from Iamblichus than possess all the gold of
Lydia. If, then, you care at all for your fond ad-
mirers—and you do care if I am not mistaken—do not
neglect me who am like a fledgling constantly in
need of sustenance from you, but write regularly,
and moreover do not be reluctant to feast me on the
good things that come from you. And if I prove to
be remiss, do you take on yourself to provide both
things, not only what you yourself give but equally
what you furnish in my place. For it befits you as a
pupil of Hermes, the god of eloquence, or, if you
261
405
406
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
καὶ τρόφιμον ὄντα σε, τὴν ἐκείνου ῥάβδον οὐκ
ἐν τῷ καθεύδειν ποιεῖν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐν τῷ κινεῖν καὶ
διεγείρειν μᾶλλον ἐθέλειν μιμεῖσθαι.
19
Τῷ αὐτῷ]
᾽ a \ > , a 50 \ 74? ς A
Οδυσσεῖ μὲν ἐξήρκει τοῦ παιδὸς τὴν ἐφ᾽ αὑτῷ
/
φαντασίαν ἀναστέλλοντι λέγειν
” Υ > , τ, /, 57
οὔτις τοι θεός εἰμι" τί μ᾽ ἀθανάτοισιν ἐίσκεις ;
ἐγὼ δὲ οὐδ᾽ ἐν ἀνθρώποις εἶναι φαίην ἂν ὅλως,
ἕως ἂν ᾿Ιαμβλίχῳ μὴ συνῶ. ἀλλ᾽ ἐραστὴς μὲν
εἶναι σὸς ὁμολογῶ, καθάπερ ἐκεῖνος τοῦ 'ηλε-
μάχου πατήρ. κἂν γὰρ ἀνάξιόν με λέγῃ τις
εἶναι, οὐδὲ οὕτω τοῦ ποθεῖν ἀφαιρήσεται" ἐπεὶ
καὶ ἀγαλμάτων καλῶν ἀκούω πολλοὺς ἐραστὰς
γενέσθαι μὴ μόνον τοῦ δημιουργοῦ τὴν “τέχνην
μὴ βλάπτοντας, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῷ περὶ αὐτὰ πάθει
τὴν ἔμψυχον ἡδονὴν τῷ ἔργῳ προστιθέντας. τῶν
γε μὴν παλαιῶν καὶ σοφῶν ἀνδρῶν, οἷς ἡμᾶς
ἐγκρίνειν ἐθέλεις παίζων, τοσοῦτον ἀπέχειν. ἂν
φαίην, ὁπόσον αὐτῷ σοι τῶν ἀνδρῶν “μετεῖναι
πιστεύω. καίτοι σύ γε οὐ Πίνδαρον μόνον οὐδὲ
Δημόκριτον ἢ ᾿Ορφέα τὸν παλαιότατον, ἀλλὰ
καὶ ξύμπαν ὁ ὁμοῦ τὸ Ἑλληνικόν, ὁ ὁπόσον εἰς ἄκρον
φιλοσοφίας ἐλθεῖν μνημονεύεται, “καθάπερ, ἐν
λύρᾳ ποικίλων φθόγγων ἐναρμονίῳ συστάσει
πρὸς τὸ ἐντελὲς τῆς μουσικῆς κεράσας ἔχεις.
καὶ ὥσπερ ΓΛργον τὸν φύλακα τῆς ᾿Ιοῦς οἱ μῦθοι
+ Hertlein 34, with title ᾿Ιαμβλίχῳ φιλοσόφῳ.
262
TO IAMBLICHUS
prefer, his nursling, to desire to imitate his use of
the wand, not by putting men to sleep, but by
rousing and awakening them.
79
To the Same
Wuen Odysseus was trying to remove his son’s
illusion about him, it was enough for him to say:
“No God am I. Why then do you liken me to the
immortals?”’4 But I might say that I do not exist
at all among men so long as I am not with Iam-
blichus. Nay, I admit that I am your lover, even as
Odysseus that he was the father of Telemachus. For
even though someone should say that I am un-
worthy, not even so shall he deprive me of my long-
ing. For Ihave heard that many men have fallen in
love with beautiful statues? and far from injuring the
art of the craftsman they have by their passion for
them imparted to the workmanship the added delight
in what lives and breathes. But as for the wise men
of old among whom you are pleased to reckon me in
jest, I should say that I fall as far short of them as
I believe that you are to be ranked among them.
And indeed you have succeeded in combining with
yourself not only Pindar or Democritus or most ancient
Orpheus, but also that whole genius of the Hellenes
which is on record as having attained to the summit
of philosophy, even as in a lyre by the harmonious
combination of various notes the perfection of
music is achieved. And just as the myths give
Argus, Io’s guardian, an encircling ring of ever-
1 Odyssey 16. 187.
* For such cases cf. Aelian, Varia Historia 9. 39.
263
D
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
-“ lal 7]
πρόνοιαν ἔχοντα τῶν Διὸς παιδικῶν ἀκοιμήτοις
πανταχόθεν ὀμμάτων βολαῖς περιφράττουσιν,
οὕτω καὶ σὲ γνήσιον ἀρετῆς φύλακα μυρίοις
παιδεύσεως ὀφθαλμοῖς ὁ λόγος φωτίζει. Ipwrtéa
\ \ \ > / / / lal «
μὲν δὴ τὸν Αἰγύπτιόν φασι ποικίλαις μορφαῖς ἑαυ-
τὸν ἐξαλλάττειν, ὥσπερ δεδιότα μὴ λάθῃ τοῖς δε-
, ra 9 \ 5] / ee \ \ Μ 9S v
ομένοις ws ἣν σοφὸς ἐκφήνας" ἐγὼ δὲ εἴπερ ἣν ὄντως
Ν € \ \ Le q \ Ὁ v
σοφὸς ὁ Ilpwrevs καὶ olos* πολλὰ τῶν ὄντων
/ / a 7
γινώσκειν, ὡς “Ὅμηρος λέγει, τῆς μὲν φύσεως
ἴων “ / > 7
αὐτὸν ἐπαινῶ, τῆς γνώμης δ᾽ οὐκ ἄγαμαι, διότι
\ , 4 2 ? > “ ΝΜ
μὴ φιλανθρώπου τινὸς, ἄλλ ἀπατεῶνος ἔργον
, ¥
ἐποίει κρύπτων ἑαυτόν, ἵνα μὴ χρήσιμος ἀνθρώ.
ποις ἢ. σὲ δέ, ὦ γενναῖε, τίς οὐκ ἂν ἀληθῶς
θαυμάσειεν, ὡς οὐδέν τι τοῦ IIpwréws τοῦ σοφοῦ
μείων el,” εἰ μὴ καὶ μᾶλλον εἰς ἀρετὴν ἄκραν
τελεσθεὶς ὧν ἔχεις καλῶν οὐ φθονεῖς ἀνθρώποις,
ΕῚ > «ey / a , Σ a , ᾽
ἀλλ᾽ ἡλίου καθαροῦ δίκην ἀκτῖνας σοφίας ἀκραι-
a / a
φνοῦς ἐπὶ πάντας ἄγεις, οὐ μόνον παροῦσι
\ ᾽ / / > \ \ > / 22 τ
τὰ εἰκότα ξυνών, ἀλλὰ Kal ἀπόντας ἐφ᾽ ὅσον
ἔξεστι τοῖς παρὰ σαυτοῦ σεμνύνων. νικῴης δ᾽
FY ¢ ΨΩ ies , \ \ ,
ἂν οὕτω καὶ τὸν ᾿Ορφέα τὸν καλὸν ols πράττεις,
εἴγε ὁ μὲν τὴν οἰκείαν μουσικὴν εἰς τὰς τῶν
θηρίων ἀκοὰς κατανάλισκε, σὺ δ᾽ ὥσπερ ἐπὶ
σωτηρίᾳ τοῦ κοινοῦ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένους τεχ-
θείς, τὴν ᾿Ασκληπιοῦ χεῖρα πανταχοῦ ζηλῶν,
ἅπαντα ἐπέρχῃ λογίῳ τε καὶ σωτηρίῳ νεύματι.8
1 οἷός τε Hertlein.
3. εἶ, εἰ μὴ καὶ Baroccianus; εἶ καὶ μὴ Vossianus, εἰ μὴ καὶ
Hertlein. 3 πνεύματι ** breath,” Martin.
264
SS μὰ} νκ...
ΝΣ “ον υ «»ὕ..
TO IAMBLICHUS
wakeful eyes as he keeps watch over the darling
of Zeus, so too does true report endow you, the
trusted guardian of virtue, with the light of the
countless eyes of culture. They say that Proteus
the Egyptian used to change himself into various
shapes! as though he feared being taken unawares
and showing those who needed his aid that he was
wise. But for my part, if Proteus was really wise
and the sort of man to know the truth about many
things, as Homer says, I applaud him for his talent,
but I cannot admire his attitude of mind, since he
played the part, not of one who loves mankind, but
of an impostor by concealing himself in order to
avoid being of service to mankind. But who, my
noble friend, would not genuinely admire you, since
though you are inferior in no way to wise Proteus if
not even more fully initiated than he in con-
summate virtues, you do not begrudge mankind the
blessings that you possess, but, like the bright sun,
you cause the rays of your pure wisdom to shine on
all men, not only by associating, as is natural, with
those near you, but also as far as possible by making
the absent proud through your writings. And in
this way by your achievements you surpass even
charming Orpheus; for he squandered on the ears of
wild beasts his own peculiar musical gift, but you, as
though you had been born to save the whole human
race, emulate everywhere the hand of Asclepius and
pervade all things with the saving power of your
1 Odyssey 4. 363 foll. ; Vergil, Georgics 4. 388 foll.
265
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
a / ᾿] /
ὥστ᾽ ἔμοιγε δοκεῖ καὶ Ὅμηρος, εἰ aveBiw, πολλῷ
Ν ’ὔ
δικαιότερον ἂν ἐπὶ σοὶ τὸ ἔπος αἰνίξασθαι τὸ
e >» \ x > κα ,
εἷς δ᾽ ἔτι που ζωὸς κατερύκεται εὐρέι κόσμῳ.
τῷ γὰρ ὄντι τοῦ παλαιοῦ κόμματος ἡμῖν οἱονεὶ
σπινθήρ τις ἱερὸς ἀληθοῦς καὶ γονίμου παιδεύσεως
ὑπὸ σοὶ μόνῳ ζωπυρεῖται. καὶ εἴη γε, Ζεῦ σῶτερ
407 καὶ “Ἑρμῆ λόγιε, τὸ κοινὸν ἁπάσης τῆς οἰκουμένης
” ? / \ U ee, ͵ὕ
ὄφελος, Ιάμβλιχον τὸν καλὸν, ἐπὶ μήκιστον
χρόνου τηρεῖσθαι. πάντως που καὶ ἐφ᾽ Ὅμήρῳ
Ν Tt / \ > ᾿ς 1 \ y »
καὶ ᾿ἰἰλάτωνν καὶ Σωκράτει" καὶ εἰ τις ἄλλος
ἄξιος τοῦ χοροῦ τούτου, δικαίας εὐχῆς ἐπίτευγμα
a , : Ξ
τοῖς πρότερον εὐτυχηθὲν οὕτω τοὺς ἐκείνων
a > \
καιροὺς ἐπὶ μεῖζον ηὔξησεν. οὐδὲν δὴ κωλύει
\ ’ ᾽ ς “ Bd % / \ , an
καὶ ἐφ᾽ ἡμῶν ἄνδρα καὶ λόγῳ καὶ βίῳ τῶν
Β ἀνδρῶν ἐκείνων ἀντάξιον ὑφ᾽ ὁμοίαις εὐχαῖς ἐς
‘ / n na
TO ἀκρότατον τοῦ γήρως ἐπ᾽ εὐδαιμονίᾳ τῶν
ἀνθρώπων παραπεμφθῆναι.
80
ΤᾺ , A / 2
920 Σαραπίωνι τῷ λαμπροτάτῳ
Bo άλλοι μὲν ἄλλως τὰς πανηγύρεις νομίζουσιν,
Ν
> +s 7 β e “ - fa) b]
ἐγὼ δὲ ἡδύ σοι γλυκείας ἑορτῆς σύνθημα τῶν ἐπι-
1 Ισοκράτει Cumont, since Socrates was only seventy when
he died.
2 Hertlein 24.
1 Odyssey 4. 498. The original verse ends with πόντῳ,
266
Se ... ..
TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS SARAPION
eloquence. Wherefore I think that Homer, too, if
he were to return to life, would with far more justice
allude to you in the verse:
‘One is still alive and is detained in the wide
world.” 1
For, in very truth, for those of us who are of the
antique mould, a sacred spark, so to speak, of true
and life-giving culture is kindled by your aid alone.
And grant, O Zeus the saviour, and Hermes, god of
eloquence, that this blessing which is the common
property of the whole world, even the charming
lamblichus, may be preserved for the longest possible
period of time! Indeed, there is no doubt that in the
case of Homer and Plato and Socrates? and others
who were worthy to be of that company, the prayers
of the just.were successful and did avail men of old,
and thus increased and prolonged the natural term
of those great men’s lives. So there is no reason
why in our day, also, a man who in his eloquence and
virtuous life is the peer of those famous men, should
not by means of similar prayers be conducted to the
extreme limit of old age for the happiness of
mankind,
80
To the most illustrious Sarapion 8
PeorLe observe the public festivals in various
ways. But I am sending you a hundred long-stalked,
dried, homegrown figs as a sweet token of this
“fon the sea”; the verse was a rhetorical commonplace and
the ending is often altered to suit the context.
* There would be more point in the reading ‘‘ Isocrates”
(Cumont) since he lived to be nearly one hundred.
3 Sarapion is otherwise unknown.
267
C
991
Β
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
χωρίων ἰσχάδων μακροκέντρους ἑκατὸν ἐκπέμπω,
τῷ μὲν τοῦ δώρου μεγέθει μικράν, τῷ κάλλει δὲ
ἴσως ἀρκοῦσαν ἡδονὴν μνηστεύων. ᾿Αριστοφάνει
μὲν οὖν δοκεῖ εἶναι πλὴν μέλιτος τῶν ἄχλων γλυ-
κύτερον τὰς ἰσχάδας, καὶ οὐδὲ τοῦτ᾽ ἀνέχεται τῶν
ἰσχάδων εἶναι γλυκύτερον, ὡς αὐτὸς ἐπικρίνας
λέγει" Ἡροδότῳ δὲ ἄρα τῷ συγγραφεῖ πρὸς ἐπί-
δειξιν ἐρημίας “ἀληθοῦς ἤρκεσεν εἰπόντι “" Παρ’
οἷς οὔτε σῦκα ἐστιν οὔτε ἄλλο ἀγαθὸν οὐδέν," ὡς
ἄρ᾽ οὔτε ἄλλου τινὸς ἐν καρποῖς ἀγαθοῦ προτέρου
τῶν σύκων ὄντος, οὔτε ἔτι πάντως ἀγαθοῦ δέον
τοῖς * map "ols ἂν ἢ τὸ σῦκον. “Ὅμηρος δὲ ὁ ὃ σοφὸς
τὰ μὲν ἄλλα τῶν καρπῶν εἰς μέγεθος ἢ 7 χρόαν ἢ
κάλλος ἐπαινεῖ, μόνῳ δὲ τῷ σύκῳ τὴν τῆς γλυκύ-
τητος ἐπωνυμίαν συγχωρεῖ. καὶ τὸ μέλε χλωρὸν
καλεῖ, δεδιὼς μὴ λάθῃ γλυκὺ προσειπών, ὃ καὶ
πικρὸν εἶναι πολλαχοῦ συμβαίνει: τῷ σύκῳ δὲ
ἄρα μόνῳ ἀποδίδωσι τὴν οἰκείαν εὐφημίαν, ὥσπερ
τῷ “νέκταρι, διότι καὶ μόνον γλυκὺ τῶν ἄχλων ἐστί.
καὶ μέλι μὲν ἹΓπποκράτης φησὶ γλυκὺ μὲν εἶναι
τὴν αἴσθησιν, πικρὸν δὲ πάντως τὴν ἀνάδοσιν, καὶ
οὐκ ἀπιστῶ τῷ λόγῳ: χολῆς γὰρ αὐτὸ “ποιητικὸν
εἶναι ξύμπαντες ὁμολογοῦσι καὶ τρέπειν τοὺς
χυμοὺς εἰς τοὐναντίον τῆς γεύσεως. ὃ δὴ καὶ
μᾶλλον. τῆς ἐκ φύσεως αὐτοῦ πικρότητος κατη-
γορεῖ τὴν γένεσιν' οὐ γὰρ ἂν εἰς τοῦτο μετέβαλλεν
ὃ πικρόν ἐστιν, εἰ μὴ καὶ πάντως αὐτῷ προσῆν
ἐξ ἀρχῆς τοῦτο, ἀφ᾽ οὗ πρὸς τὸ ἕτερον μετέπιπτε.
1 δέον τοῖς Hertlein suggests ; δέοντος MSS.
1 Quoted in Athenaeus, Deipnosophists θὅ2ε ; Fragg. Incert.
Fab. 7 οὐδὲν γὰρ ὄντως γλυκύτερον τῶν ἰσχάδων.
268
ae
TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS SARAPION
pleasant festal season, If you measure the gift by
its size, the pleasure I offer you is trifling, but if
measured by its beauty it will perhaps suffice. Itis the
opinion of Aristophanes? that figs are sweeter than
anything else except honey, and on second thoughts
he does not allow that even honey is sweeter than
figs. Herodotus? the historian also, in order to
describe a really barren desert thought it enough to
say: “They have no figs or anything else that is
good’; as though to say that among the fruits of the
earth there is none to be ranked above figs, and that
where men had figs they did not wholly lack some-
thing good. Again, the wise Homer praises other
fruits for their size or colour or beauty, but to the fig
alone he allows the epithet “sweet.” 3 And he calls
honey “ yellow,’ * for fear he should inadvertently
eall “sweet”? what is in fact often bitter; accord-
ingly, to the fig alone he assigns this epithet for its
own, just as he does to nectar, because alone of all
things it is sweet. Indeed Hippocrates® says that
honey, though it is sweet to the taste, is quite bitter
to the digestion, and I can believe his statement; for
all agree that it produces bile and turns the juices
to the very opposite of its original flavour, which fact
even more surely convicts it of being in its origin
naturally bitter.? For it would not change to this
bitterness if in the beginning this quality had not
belonged to it, from which it changed to the
aie Noa: δ 3 Odyssey 7. 116. 4 Odyssey 10. 234.
5 Homer does however call honey “ sweet” in Odyssey
20. 69 μέλιτι γλυκερῷ.
§ De internis affectionibus 844 ; Hippocrates is speaking of
honey that has been cooked.
Τ Oration 8. 241A, Julian says that honey is made from
the bitterest herbs.
269
392
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
σῦκον δὲ οὐκ αἰσθήσει μόνον ἡδύ, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀνα-
δόσει κρεῖττόν ἐστιν. οὕτω δέ ἐστιν ἀνθρώποις
ὠφέλιμον, ὥστε καὶ ἀλεξιφάρμακον αὐτὸ παντὸς
ὀλεθρίου φαρμάκου φησὶν ᾿Αριστοτέχης εἶναι, κἀν
τοῖς δείπνοις οὐκ ἄλλου τινὸς ἢ τούτου χάρι" τῶν
ἐδεσμάτων προπαρατίθεσθαί τε καὶ ἐπιτραγημα-
τίξεσθαι, καθάπερ ἀντ᾽ ἄλλης τινὸς ἀλεξήσεως
ἱερᾶς ταῖς τῶν βρωμάτων ἀδικίαις περιπτυσσό-
μενον. καὶ μὴν ὅτι καὶ θεοῖς τὸ σῦκον ἀνάκειται,
καὶ θυσίας ἐστὶν ἁπάσης ἐμβώμιον, καὶ ὅτι παν-
τὸς λιβανωτοῦ κρεῖττον ἐς θυμιάματος σκευασίαν
ἐστίν, οὐκ ἐμὸς ἴδιος οὗτος ὁ λόγος, ἀλλ᾽ ὅστις τὴν
χρείαν αὐτοῦ ἔμαθεν, οἷδεν ὡς ἀνδρὸς σοφοῦ καὶ
ἱεροφάντου λόγος ἐστί. Θεόφραστος δὲ ὁ καλὸς
ἐν γεωργίας παραγγέλμασι τὰς τῶν ἑτεροφύτων
δένδρων. γενέσεις ἐκτιθεὶς καὶ ὅσα ἀλληλούχοις
ἐγκεντρίσεσιν εἴκει, πάντων, οἶμαι, τῶν φυτῶν
μᾶλλον ἐπαινεῖ τῆς συκῆς τὸ δένδρον ὡς ἂν ποι-
κίλης καὶ διαφόρου γενέσεως δεκτικὸν καὶ μόνον
τῶν ἄλλων εὔκολον παντοίου γένους ἐνεγκεῖν βλά-
στῆν, εἴ τις αὐτοῦ τῶν κλάδων “ἐκτεμὼν ἕκαστον,
εἶτα ἐκρήξας ἄλλην ἐς ἄλλο τῶν πρέμνων ἐμφυῆ
γονὴν ἐναρμόσειεν, ὡς ἀρκεῖν ἤδη πολλάκις αὐτοῦ
καὶ ἀνθ᾽ ὁλοκλήρου κήπου τὴν ὄψιν, οἷον ἐν λει-
μῶνι χαριεστάτῳ ποικίλην τινὰ καὶ πολυειδῆ τῶν
καρπῶν ἀφ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ τὴν ἀγλαΐαν. ἀντιπεπομφύτος.
καὶ τὰ μὲν ἄλλα τῶν ἀκροδρύων ἐ ἐστὶν ὀλιγοχρόνια
καὶ τὴν μονὴν οὐκ ἀνέχεται, μόνῳ δὲ τῷ σύκῳ
καὶ ὑπερενιαυτίζειν ἔξεστι καὶ τῇ τοῦ μέλλοντος
1 Aristotle, Frag. 105, Rose.
+
TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS SARAPION
reverse, But the fig is not only sweet to taste but
it is still better for digestion. And it is so beneficial
to mankind that Aristotle! even says that it is an
antidote for every deadly poison, and that for no
other reason than this is it served before other
food as a first course at meals and then at the end
for dessert, as though we embraced it in prefer-
ence to any other sacred means of averting the
injury caused by the things we eat. Moreover, that
the fig is offered to the gods also, and is set on the
altar in every sacrifice, and that it is better than
any frankincense for making fragrant fumes, this
is a statement not made by me alone,? but who-
ever is acquainted with its use knows that it is the
statement of a wise man, a hierophant. Again, the
admirable Theophrastus* in his precepts of agri-
culture, when he is describing the kinds of grafted
trees and what sorts admit of being grafted on one
another, commends the fig tree above all other
plants, if I am not mistaken, as being able to receive
various and different kinds, and as the only one of
them all that easily bears a growth of any other sort,
if you cut out every one of its boughs and then break
off and insert a different engrafted stock into each of
the cleft stumps; hence to look at it is often equi-
valent to a complete garden, since it returns you the
variegated and manifold splendours of other fruits,
as happens in the loveliest orchard. And whereas
the fruits of other fruit-bearing trees are short-lived
and cannot last for any time, the fig alone can
survive beyond the year, and is present at the birth
2 A Julianic commonplace, cf. note on Vol. 2 Fragment of
a Letter 299c, and above, p. 222.
3 Enquiry into Plants 2. 5. 6.
271
τ
D
THE APOCRY PHAL LETTERS
na n 4 \ \
καρποῦ γενέσει συνενεχθῆναι. ὥστε φησὶ Kal
eg
Ὅμηρος ἐν ᾿Αλκίνου κήπῳ τοὺς καρποὺς ἀλλήλοις
a x
ἐπιγηράσκειν. ἐπὶ μὲν οὖν TOV ἄλλων ἴσως ἂν
a / na Δ
μῦθος ποιητικὸς εἶναι δόξειε: μόνῳ δὲ TO σύκῳ
\ \ n > " bl \ x / ,
πρὸς TO τῆς ἀληθείας ἐναργὲς Av συμφέροιτο, διότι
καὶ μόνον τῶν ἄλλων καρπῶν ἐστὶ μονιμώτερον.
τοιαύτην δὲ ἔχον, οἶμαι, τὸ σῦκον τὴν φύσιν, πολλῷ
Ὁ / ,’ "Ὁ. \ / lal 4
κρεῖττόν ἐστι Tap ἡμῖν τὴν γένεσιν, ὡς εἶναι TOV
\ 7 an ae , > a \ a
μὲν ἄλλων φυτῶν αὐτὸ τιμιώτερον, αὐτοῦ δὲ τοῦ
΄ a : a
σύκου τὸ Tap ἡμῖν θαυμασιώτερον, Kal νικᾶν μὲν
εις." al ΝΜ \ / i ’ e \ a
αὐτὸ τῶν ἄλλων τὴν γένεσιν, αὖθις δ᾽ ὑπὸ τοῦ
᾽ a “Ὁ n ,
παρ᾽ ἡμῖν ἡττᾶσθαι καὶ τῇ πρὸς ἑκάτερον ἐγκρίσει
nr ᾽ 9S
πάλιν σώζεσθαι, κρατοῦντι μὲν ἐοικός, ols δ᾽ av
a a , an
κρατεῖσθαι δοκεῖ, πάλιν és τὸ καθόλου νικῶντι.
a a ,
καὶ τοῦτο οὐκ ἀπεικότως παρ᾽ ἡμῖν μόνοις συμ-
7ὔ 5d % 53 \ \ 7 > n \
βαίνει" ἔδει yap, οἶμαι, τὴν Διὸς πόλιν ἀληθῶς καὶ
\ n e- F e / >] , \ e \ \
τὸν Ths ἑῴας ἁπάσης ὀφθαλμόν' τὴν ἱερὰν καὶ
μεγίστην Δαμασκὸν λέγω" τοῖς τε ἄλλοις σύμπα-
σιν, οἷον ἱερῶν κάλλει καὶ νεῶν μεγέθει καὶ ὡρῶν
> / 1 \ a > εἰ x nr ft
εὐκρασίᾳ' καὶ πηγῶν ἀγλαΐᾳ, καὶ ποταμῶν πλή
\ fol > a » a
θει καὶ γῆς εὐφορίᾳ νικῶσαν μόνην ἄρα καὶ TO
n \ al / \
τοιούτῳ φυτῷ πρὸς τὴν τοῦ θαύματος ὑπεροχὴν
> / ἡδὲ 4 5 / na \ δέ
ἀρκέσαι. οὐδὲν οὖν ἀνέχεται μεταβολῆς τὸ δέν-
Spov, οὐδὲ ὑπερβαίνει τοὺς ἐπιχωρίους ὅρους τῆς
/ > > > / “ / \ >
βλάστης, ἀλλ αὐτόχθονος φυτοῦ νόμῳ τὴν ἐξ
ἀποικίας γένεσιν ἀρνεῖται. καὶ χρυσὸς μὲν, οἶμαι,
1 εὐκρασίᾳ Cobet οἵ, Zimaeus 34 0, εὐκαιρίᾳ Hertlein, MSS.
1 Odyssey 7. 120.
272
TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS.SARAPION
of the fruit that is to follow it. Hence Homer ! also
says that in the garden of Alcinous the fruits “ wax
old on” one another. Now in the case of other
fruits this might perhaps seem to be a poetic fiction,
but for the fig alone it would be consistent with the
plain fact, because alone of all fruits it lasts for some
time. Such, I think, is the nature of the fig in
general, but the kind that grows with us is much
better than others; so that in proportion as the fig
is more valuable than other plants, our fig is more
admirable than the fig in general; and while the
latter in its kind ‘surpasses all other fruits, it is in its
turn excelled by ours, and again holds its own by
comparison in both respects, first in being plainly
superior, and secondly, in points where it seems to
be inferior it wins on the general count. And it is
quite natural that this should be so in our country
alone. For it was fitting, I think, that the city
which in very truth belongs to Zeus and is the eye
of the whole East,—I mean sacred and most mighty
Damascus,—?* which in all other respects bears the
palm, for instance, for the beauty of its shrines and
the size of its temples and for its exquisitely
tempered climate and the splendour of its fountains,
the number of its rivers and the fertility of its soil—
I say it is fitting that she alone should keep up her
reputation by the possession of a plant of this ex-
cellence and thus excite an excess of admiration.
Accordingly our tree does not brook transplanting,
nor does it overstep the natural boundaries of its
growth, but as though by a law that governs the
indigenous plant refuses to grow in colonies abroad.
The same sorts of gold and silver are, I believe,
2 Julian, as far as we know, never visited Damascus.
273
VOL, Il. T
393
THE.APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
Kab ἄργυρος ὁ αὐτὸς πολλαχοῦ φύεται, μόνη δὲ ἡ
παρ᾽ ἡμῖν χώρα τίκτει φυτὸν ἀλλαχοῦ φῦναι μὴ
δυνάμενον. ὥσπερ δὲ τὰ cE Ἰνδῶν ἀγώγιμα, καὶ
οἱ Περσικοὶ σῆρες ἢ ὅσα ἐν τῇ Αἰθιόπων γῇ τίκτε-
ται μὲν καὶ λέγεται, τῷ δὲ τῆς ἐμπορίας νόμῳ
πανταχοῦ διαβαίνει" οὕτω δὴ" καὶ τὸ παρ᾽ ἡμῖν
σῦκον, ἀλλαχοῦ τῆς γῆς οὐ “γινόμενον, πανταχοῦ
παρ᾽ ἡμῶν στέλλεται, καὶ οὔτε πόλις οὔτε νῆσός
ἐστιν, ἣν οὐκ ἐπέρχεται τῷ τῆς ἡδονῆς θαύματι.
ἀλλὰ καὶ τράπεζαν βασιλικὴν κοσμεῖ, καὶ παντὸς
δείπνου σεμνόν ἐστιν ᾿ἐγκαλλώπισμα, καὶ οὔτ᾽
ἔνθρυπτον οὔτε στρεπτὸν οὔτε νεήλατον οὔτε ἄλλο
καρυκείας γένος ἥδυσμα ἴ ἴσον ἣ ἂν ἀφίκηται" " το-
σοῦτον αὐτῷ τῶν τε ἄλλων ἐδεσμάτων καὶ δὴ καὶ
τών ἑκασταχοῦ σύκων“ περίεστι τοῦ θαύματος.
καὶ τὰ μὲν ἄλλα τῶν σύκων ἢ ὀπωρινὴν ἔχει τὴν
βρῶσιν ἢ ἢ τερσαινόμενα ἐς τὸ ταμεῖον ἔ ἔρχεται, τὸ
δὲ παρ᾽ ἡμῖν μόνον ἀμφοτερίζει τῇ χρείᾳ, καὶ καλὸν
μέν ἐστιν ἐπιδένδριον, πολλῷ δὲ κάλλιον, εἰ ἐς
τὴν τερσιὰν ἔλθοι. εἰ δὲ καὶ τὴν ὥραν ¢ αὐτοῦ THY
ἐν τοῖς δένδροις ὀφθαλμῷ λάβοις, καὶ ὅπως ἑκά-
στου τῶν πρέμνων ἐπιμήκεσι. τοῖς κέντροις οἱονεὶ
καλύκων δίκην a ἀπήρτηται, ἢ ὅπως ἐν κύκλῳ περι-
θεῖ τῷ καρπῷ τὸ δένδρον, ἄλλας ἐπ᾽ ἄλλαις ἐν
στόιχῳ " περιφερεῖ πολυειδεῖς ἀγλαΐας μηχανᾶ-
cba’ φαίης ἂν αὐτὸ καθάπερ ἐν ὅρμῳ δέρης. αἱ
1 χέγεται MSS., Bidez would retain = colliguntur, Hertlein
τρέφεται.
οὕτω δὲ Hertlein in error for MSS., δή, restored by Bidez.
ὃ Hercher and Hertlein οὔτ᾽ ἀρ ὐλδὸν ἐς τὸ ἴσον ἀφίκοιτο ;
MSS. οὔτ᾽---ἔσται ἥδυσμα ἴσον ἤ ; Bidez οὔτ᾽ ----ῆἥδυσμα ἴσον ἣ
(cf. Thucydides 2. 100 = ‘‘ where”) ἄν ἀφίκηται.
4 After ἑκασταχοῦ Hertlein suggests σύκων.
274
TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS SARAPION
produced in many places, but our country aloné
gives birth to a plant that cannot be grown any-
where else. And just like the wares of India, or
Persian silks, or all that is produced and collected
in the country of the Ethiopians but travels every-
where by the law of commerce, so, too, our native fig
doves not grow anywhere else on earth, but is exported
by us to all parts, and there is no city or island to
which it does not travel, because it is so much
admired for its sweet flavour. Moreover it even
adorns the imperial table and is the boast and orna-
ment of every feast; and there is no cake or roll or
pastry! or any kind of confectionery to match it as
a sweetmeat wherever it comes; so far does it surpass
in admirable qualities all other dainties, and more-
over all figs from any other place. Again, other
figs are either eaten in autumn, or are dried and go to
the store-room, but the fig of our country alone can
be used in both ways, and though it is good while on
the tree it is far better when it has been dried.
And should you see with your own eyes their beauty
while they are still on the trees, and how from each
one of the branches they hang by long stalks like
flower-buds, so to speak, or again, how with their fruit
they completely encircle the tree, then you would say
that by this circular series one above another they
compose a splendid and varied picture even as a
neck in its necklace. Then again, the manner in
1 An echo of Demosthenes, On the Crown 260 ἔν)ρυπτα καὶ
στρεπτοὺς καὶ νεήλατα.
5 Thomas; ὅμοιον MSS.
8 στοίχῳ MSS., Bidez; τοίχῳ Vossianus, Hertlein.
7 μηχανώμενον, φαίης Hertlein, MSS. ; μηχανᾶσθαι φαίης Bidez.
275
rT 2
994
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
oe} Tay δένδρων ἐξαιρέσεις αὐτοῦ " καὶ ἡ πρὸς
χρονίαν "μονὴν ἐπιτέχνησις οὐκ ἐλάττονα τῆς ἐς
τὴν χρείαν. ἡδονῆς ἔχει τὴν φιλοτιμίαν" οὐ γὰρ
ὥσπερ τὰ ἄλλα τῶν σύκων ὁμοῦ καὶ κατὰ ταὐτὸν
ἔρριπται, οὐδὲ σωρηδὸν ἢ ἢ χύδην ἡλίῳ τερσαίνεται,
ἀλλὰ πρῶτον μὲν ἠρέμα τῶν δένδρων αὐτὰ ταῖς
χερσὶν ἀποδρέπουσιν, ἔπειτα ὅρπηξιν ἢ ῥάβδοις
ἀκανθώδεσι τῶν τοίχων ἀπαρτῶσιν, ἵνα λευκαί-
νηται μὲν ἡλίῳ καθαρῷ προσομιλοῦντα, μένῃ δ᾽
ἀνεπιβούλευτα τῶν ζῴων καὶ τῶν ὀρνιθίων, οἱονεὶ
τῶν κέντρων τῇ ἀλεξήσει δορυφορούμενα. καὶ
περὶ μὲν γενέσεως αὐτῶν καὶ γλυκύτητος καὶ
ὥρας καὶ ποιήσεως καὶ χρείας ταῦτά σοι παρ᾽
ἡμῶν ἡ ἐπιστολὴ προσπαίζει.
ὝὍ γε μὴν τῶν ἑκατὸν ἀριθμὸς ὡς ἔστι τῶν
ἄλλων τιμιώτερος καὶ τὸ τέλεον ἐν αὑτῷ τῶν ἀρι-
θμῶν περιγράφων, μάθοι av τις θεωρῶν τῇδε. καὶ
οὐκ ἀγνοῶ μὲν ὡς παλαιῶν καὶ σοφῶν ᾿ἀνδρῶν ὁ
λόγος, τοῦ ἀρτίου τὸν περιττὸν προκεῖσθαι, οὐδὲ
ὡς ἀρχήν φασιν αὐξήσεως εἶναι τὸ μὴ συνδυάξον'
τὸ γὰρ ὅμοιον θατέρῳ μένειν ὁποῖον καὶ τὸ ἕτερον,
δυοῖν δὲ γενομένοιν τὸν τρίτον εἶναι τὴν περιτ-
τότητα. ἐγὼ δ᾽ ἄν, εἰ καὶ τολμηρότερος ὁ λόγος
ἐστί, φαίην ὅμως" ἀρχῆς μὲν εἰσιν οἱ ἀριθμοὶ
πάντως ἐξηρτημένοι, καὶ τὸ προσεχὲς τῆς αὐξή-
σεως διὰ παντὸς ἂν κομίξοιντο. πολλῷ γε μὴν
οἶμαι δικαιότερον τῷ ἀρτίῳ μᾶλλον ἢ τῷ περιττῷ
τὴν τῆς αὐξήσεως αἰτίαν προσκεῖσθαι. ὁ μὲν
ὶ 1 αὐτὺ---δέρης. αἱ δὲ Bidez; αὐτῷ---δέρης τὰς Hertlein,
ISS.
* αὐτοῦ καὶ ἡ Bidez; αὐτοῦ. καὶ ἡ Hertlein, MSS.
270
TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS SARAPION
which they are taken from the tree and the means
employed for preserving them for a long time
involve quite as much outlay as the pleasure
derived from their use. For they are not, like
other kinds of figs, thrown together in one place,
nor are they dried in the sun in heaps or promis-
cuously; but first they are gathered carefully by
hand from the trees, then they are hung on walls*by
means of sticks or thorny twigs, so that they may
be bleached by exposure to the direct rays of the
sun while they are also safe from the attacks of
animals and small birds, since the protection of the
prickles furnishes them with a sort of bodyguard.
So far my letter to you deals with their origin,
sweetness, beauty, confection, and use, and is in
lighter vein.
Now to consider the number one hundred,! which
is more honourable than \jany other and contains in
itself the perfection of all numbers, as one may learn
from the following considerations. I am indeed
well aware that there is a saying of wise men of old
that an odd number is to be preferred to an even,
and they declare that the source of increase is
that which does not couple. For in a pair the one
term being equal to the other remains of the same
quality, but when there are two numbers the third
produces oddness. But for my part, even though
the statement is somewhat bold, I would neverthe-
less say this: Numbers surely depend on a genera-
tive principle, and can carry on consecutive increase
through the whole series. But I hold that it is far
more just to assign the cause of that increase to the
even than to the odd number. For the number one
1 He was sending one hundred figs.
277
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
C yap els ἀριθμὸς οὐκ ἂν εἴη περιττός, οὐκ ἔχων
ὅτου περιττὸς γένοιτο" ἡ δὲ τῆς δυάδος συξυγία
τίκτει διπλῆν τὴν περιττότητα, κἀκ τῶν δυοῖν
ἀριθμῶν ὁ τρίτος εἰκότως εἰς αὔξησιν “ἔρχεται.
πάλιν τε ἐν τῇ τῆς ἑτέρας δυάδος μίξει τῆς πετρά-
δος τὴν ὑπεροχὴν. λαμβάνει, καὶ ὅλως ἡ πρὸς
ἄλληλα κοινωνία τὴν ἐξἑκατέρου περιττότητα φαί-
νουσα εἰς τὸν τῆς δυάδος ἀριθμὸν περικλείεται.
δεδομένου δὴ τούτου, φαίην ἂν, οἶμαι, τῆς πρώτης
δεκάδος τὴν εἰς αὑτὴν περιφέρειαν ἀνακυκλούσης
εἰς τὸν τῆς ἑκατοντάδος ἀριθμὸν τὸ ὅλον δια-
βαίνειν, ὡς τῷ μὲν ἑνὶ τὴν αὔξησιν ἂν εἰς δέκα
συντείνειν, πάλιν δ᾽ αὖ τὴν δεκάδα δι’ αὑτῆς ἀνι-
οὔσαν εἰς τὸν τῶν ἑκατὸν ἀριθμὸν συντελεῖσθαι.
κἀντεῦθεν αὖ πάλιν ἐξ ἑκατοντάδων τὸ ὅλον τῶν
ἀριθμῶν τὴν δύναμιν καρποῦσθαι, “μήτε τοῦ ἑνὸς
ἠρεμοῦντος, εἰ μή τι τῆς δυάδος ἐν τῇ μίξει τὸ
περιττὸν ἀεὶ τικτούσης τε καὶ εἰς ἑαυτὴν αὖθις
ἀνακαλουμένης, ἄχρις ἂν ἑτέρᾳ πάλιν ἑκατοντάδι
τῶν ἀριθμῶν τὸ συναγόμενον κατακλείσῃ, καὶ τὸ
τέλεον αὐτῷ προσάπτουσα πάλιν ἐξ αὐτοῦ πρὸς
τὸ ἕτερον ἑρπύσῃ, ταῖς τῶν ἑκατοντάδων ἐπηγο-
ρίαις ἀεὶ τὸ ὅλον εἰς τὸ τῆς καταλήψεως ἄπειρον
ἀναφέρουσα. δοκεῖ δέ μοι καὶ Ὅμηρος οὐχ ἁπλῶς
οὐδὲ ἀργῶς ἐν τοῖς ἔπεσι τὴν ἑκατονταθύσανον
αἰγίδα τῷ Aut περιθεῖναι, ἀλλά τινι κρείττονι καὶ
ἀπορρήτῳ λόγῳ τοῦτο αἰνίττεσθαι λέγων, ὡς ἄρα
1 δι 1 is now odd in relation to 2, and their combination
results in 3, an odd number.
* i.e. when ten is multiplied by ten.
278
a
TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS SARAPION
is not odd, when it has no number in respect to
which it were odd. But its coupling with two pro-
duces twofold oddness,! and the number three,
coming from the two, naturally proceeds as increase.
Then again when we add two to two, the result is the
higher stage of the number four, and, in a word,
their conjunction, while making oddness clear in
each of their two elements, is constituted in the
number two. This being granted, I should say, of
course, that when the first decad is revolving on
itself in a circle,? the whole series progresses to the
number one hundred, so that by the number one
the increase amounts to ten, and the decad in turn
is added each time to. itself, and the total is
reached in the number one hundred. And. start-
ing again from this point, with the hundreds, the
whole series of numbers derive their power, by
the activity of the number one, except that it is
the number two* when combined with it that ever
produces the odd and again recalls it to itself,
until again it concludes with a second hundred the
sum of all the numbers, and, making it complete,
proceeds again from it to another and under the
denomination of hundreds continually carries forward
the sum to the conception of infinity. So I think
that Homer too in his poems does not lightly or
idly assign to Zeus the hundred-tasselled egis,* but
in a lofty and obscure saying he hinted at this
3 The writer, who probably could not have explained his
cryptic language, insists on the superiority of the dyad,
even and feminine, to the odd number 1, regarded as the
male principle.
4 The epithet is not used in our Homer of the egis of
Zeus, but of the egis of Athene and the girdle of Hera.
279
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
na 7 A Ν , 3 \ ’
τῷ τελεωτάτῳ θεῷ τὸν τελεώτατον ἀριθμὸν περιά-
\ GC - ¥ \ \ 7 xX‘ “
Were καὶ ᾧ μόνῳ παρὰ τοὺς ἄλλους ἂν δικαιότερον
a δ ᾽ὔ
κοσμοῖτο, ἢ ὅτι τὸν ξύμπαντα κόσμον, ὃν εἰς αἰγί-
δος σχῆμα τῷ τῆς εἰκόνος περιφερεῖ ξυνείληφεν,
> 37 Ἃ ἐς la) ς \ > \ /
οὐκ ἄλλος πως ἢ ὁ τῶν ἑκατὸν ἀριθμὸς περιγράφει,
»“»ὦ» \ 4 e , \ “3 Ν « lol
τῇ κατὰ κύκλον ἑκατοντάδι τὴν és TO ὅλον TOD
νοητοῦ κατανόησιν ἐφαρμόττων. ὁ δ᾽ αὐτὸς λόγος
οὗτος καὶ τὸν ἑκατοντάχειρα, τὸν Βριάρεω, καθίζει
n \ rn
πάρεδρον τῷ Διί, καὶ πρὸς THY TOD πατρὸς aptr-
al A , e 3 lal lal » r
λᾶσθαι συγχωρεῖ δύναμιν, οἷον ἐν τῷ TOD ἀριθμοῦ
7 \ / 3 a a 3 4 ᾽ / \
τελέῳ TO τέλεον αὐτῷ τῆς ἰσχύος ἀποδιδούς. καὶ
\ \ Ti 5 ε Θ ἴω \ 5 7] \
μὴν καὶ Πίνδαρος ὁ Θηβαῖος τὴν ἀναίρεσιν τὴν
r ,
Tudwéws ἐν ἐπινικίοις κηρύττων καὶ TO τοῦ μεγί-
στου τούτου γίγαντος κράτος τῷ μεγίστῳ βασιλεῖ
τῶν θεῶν περιτιθεὶς οὐχ ἑτέρωθεν αὐτῷ τῆς εὐφη-
, 4 \ ς \ XN “ x ,
pias κρατύνει τὴν ὑπερβολὴν ἢ ὅτι τὸν γίγαντα
τὸν ἑκατοντακέφαλον ἑνὶ βλήματι καθελεῖν ἤρκε-
ξ ” \ 5) >’ a n \ lal
σεν, WS οὔτε τινὸς ἄλλου εἰς χεῖρα TOD Διὸς ἐλθεῖν
ἀντιμάχου γίγαντος νομισθέντος ἢ ὃν ἡ μήτηρ
, n yy [ὦ \ ral [2 »
μονον τῶν ἄλλων EKATOV κεφαλαῖς ὥπλισεν, οὔτε
[2 / \ al xX ’ \ ᾽ ’ Ν
ἑτέρου τινὸς θεῶν ἢ μόνου Διὸς ἀξιονικοτέρου πρὸς
τὴν τοῦ τοσούτου γίγαντος καθαίρεσιν ὄντος.
Σεμωνίδῃ δὲ ἄρα τῷ μελικῷ πρὸς τὴν ᾿Απόλλωνος
nr \
εὐφημίαν ἀρκεῖ τὸν θεὸν Ἑκατον προσειπόντι καὶ
καθάπερ ἀντ᾽ ἄλλου τινὸς ἱεροῦ γνωρίσματος
αὐτοῦ τὴν ἐπωνυμίαν κοσμῆσαι, διότι τὸν Πύθωνα,
\ / / « [4 > 4
τὸν δράκοντα, βέλεσιν ἑκατόν, ὥς φησιν, ἐχειρώ-
280
TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS SARAPION
that to the most perfect god he attached. the most
perfect number, that number by which alone beyond
all the others he would most fittingly be adorned,
or because the whole universe which he has com-
prehended in the shape of an wgis, by reason of
the roundness of that image, no other number
than the hundred describes, and so with the round
number one hundred he harmonises the conception
of the intelligible world asa whole. Again, on the
same principle he makes Briareus with his hundred
hands the assessor of Zeus and allows him to rival his
father’s might, as though he expressed the perfec-
tion of his strength by means of the perfect number.
Again, Pindar! the Theban, when he celebrates the
destruction of Typhoeus in his odes of victory, and
ascribes to the most mighty ruler of the gods power
over this most mighty giant, rises to the highest
pitch of praise simply because with one blow he
was able to lay low the hundred-headed giant, as
though no other giant was held worthy to fight
hand to hand with Zeus than he whom, alone of all
the rest, his mother had armed with a hundred
heads; and as though no other of the gods save
Zeus only were worthy to win a victory by the
destruction of so great a giant. Simonides? also,
the lyric poet, thinks it enough for his praise of
Apollo that he should call the god “ Hekatos’’%
and adorn him with this title rather than with any
other sacred symbol; for this reason, that he over-
came the Python, the serpent, with a hundred
1 1 Pindar, Olympian Ode 4. 7; Pythian 1. 16.
2 Simonides, frag. 26, Bergk.
8 This epithet means ‘‘ Far-Darter” and is misinterpreted
by the writer of this letter to mean ‘*‘ Hundredth,”
281
396
C
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
σατο, Kal μᾶλλον αὐτὸν “Exatov ἢ Πύθιον χαίρειν
προσαγορευόμενον, οἷον desma’: τινὸς ἐπωνυ-
μίας συμβόλῳ προσφωνούμενον. ἥ γε μὴν τὸν
Δία θρεψαμένη νῆσος, ἡ Κρήτη, καθάπερ τροφεῖα
τῆς Διὸς ὑποδοχῆς ἀντιλαβοῦσα τῷ τῶν ἑκατὸν
πόλεων ἀριθμῷ τετίμηται. καὶ Θήβας bea ἄρα τὰς
ἑκατονταπύλους οὐκ ἄλλου τινὸς ἢ τούτου χάριν
ἐπαινεῖ “Ὅμηρος, διότι ταῖς πύλαις ταῖς ἑκατὸν
κάλλος Hv θαυμαστόν. καὶ σιωπῶ θεῶν ἑ ἑκατόμ-
βας καὶ νεὼς ἑκατονταπέδους καὶ βωμοὺς ἑκατον-
τακρήπιδας καὶ τοὺς ἑκατονταδόχους ἀνδρῶνας
καὶ τὰς ἀρούρας δὲ τὰς ἑκατονταπλέθρους καὶ ὅσα
ἄλλα θεῖά τε καὶ ἀνθρώπινα. τῇ τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ τοῦδε
προσηγορίᾳ συνείληπται. ὅ γε μὲν ἀριθμὸς οὗτος
οἷδε καὶ στρατιωτικὴν ὁμοῦ καὶ εἰρηνικὴν τάξιν
κοσμῆσαι, καὶ ᾿φαιδρύνει μὲν τὴν ἑκατόντανδρον
λοχαγίαν, τιμᾷ δὲ ἥδε καὶ δικαστῶν ἐς τὸ ἴσον
ἥκουσαν ἐπωνυμίαν. καί με καὶ πλείω τούτων
ἔχοντα λέγειν ὁ τῆς ἐπιστολῆς ἐπιστρέφει νόμος"
σὺ δὲ ἀλλὰ συγγνώμην. ἔχειν τῷ λόγῳ, διότι καὶ
ταῦτα πλείω τῶν ἱκανῶν εἴρηται. καὶ εἰ μὲν ἔχει
μέτριον. ἐπὶ col κριτῇ κάλλος τὸ ἐγχείρημα, πάν-
τως “καὶ “πρὸς τοὺς ἄλλους ἔκφορον ἔσται, τῆς
παρὰ σοῦ ψήφου τὴν μαρτυρίαν δεξάμενον" εἰ δὲ
χειρὸς ἑτέρας προσδεῖται πρὸς τὸ τοῦ σκοποῦ
συμπλήρωμα, τίς ἂν σοῦ κάλλιον εἰδείη τὴν γραφὴν
εἰς κάλλος ἀκριβώσας πρὸς τὴν τῆς θέας ἡδονὴν
ἀπολεᾶναι ; ἢ
1 ἀκριβώσας---ἀπολεᾶναι (cf. ἐπιλεαίνων vol. 1, Oration 3, 111
D in same sense) Hertlein suggests. Hercher ἀκριβῶσαι:
deleting the last six words. MSS, ἀκριβώσαντο:---ἀπολαῦσαι
retained in Hertlein’s text.
282
——— ll
TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS SARAPION
shafts, as he says, and the god himself took more
pleasure in being addressed as “ Hekatos” than as
“the Pythian,” as if he were thus invoked by the
symbolic expression of his complete title. Then
again, the island Crete which nurtured Zeus, has
received as her reward, as though it were her fee
for sheltering Zeus, the honour of cities to the
number of one hundred. Homer? too praises
Thebes the hundred-gated for no other reason than
this that there was a marvellous beauty in her
hundred gates. I say nothing of the hecatombs of
the gods and temples a hundred feet long, altars
with a hundred steps, rooms that hold a hundred
men, fields of a hundred acres and other things
divine and human which are classed together
because they have this number for their epithet.
It is a number, moreover, that has the power to
adorn official rank both for war and peace, and while
it lends brilliance to a company of a hundred soldiers
it also confers distinction on the title of judges?
when their number is one hundred. And I could say
more than this, but the etiquette of letter-writing
deters me. But do you be indulgent to my dis-
course, for what I have said already is more than
enough. And if my essay has in your judgement
even a mediocre elegance it shall surely go forth for
others to read, after receiving the testimonial of
your vote; but if it need another hand to make
it fulfil its aim, who better than you should know
how to polish the manuscript to the point of
elegance and make it smooth so as to give pleasure
to the eye? ᾿
1 Jliad 9. 383; Acneid 3. 106.
2 The centumviri,
283
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
81
Βασιλείῳ !
To ἔμφυτόν μοι ἐκ παιδόθεν γαληνὸν καὶ φιλάν-
θρωπον μέχρι γε τοῦ παρόντος ἐπιδεικνύμενος,
πάντας ὑπηκόους ἐκομισάμην τοὺς οἰκοῦντας τὴν
¢ 4? 2 \ \ cal / 4 /
ὑφ᾽ ἥλιον. ἰδοὺ yap πᾶν γένος βαρβάρων μέχρις
ὁρίων ὠκεανοῦ ποταμοῦ δῶρά μοι κομίζον ἧκε
lal nr e
Tapa ποσὶ τοῖς ἐμοῖς, ὁμοίως δὲ Kal Layddapes οἱ
,
παρὰ τὸν Δάνουβιν ἐκτραφέντες καὶ Τόττοι ποικι-
λοκαρόμορφοι,5 οἷς οὐκ ἔστι θέα ὁμοιοειδὴς ἀνθρώ-
ποις, ἀλλὰ μορφὴ ἀγριαίνουσα. οὗτοι κατὰ τὴν
ἐνεστῶσαν προκαλινδοῦνται ἴχνεσι τοῖς ἐμοῖς,
ὑπισχνούμενοι ποιεῖν ἐκεῖνα, ἅπερ τῇ ἐμῇ ἁρμόζει
΄ ιν Ses 4 / τ. > \
βασιλείᾳ. οὐχὶ δὲ ἐν τούτῳ μόνον ἕλκομαι, ἀλλὰ
δεῖ we σὺν πολλῷ τῷ τάχει καταλαβεῖν τὴν ΠΕερ-
σῶν καὶ τροπώσασθαι τὸν Σάπωριν ἐκεῖνον τὸν
ἀπόγονον Δαρείου γεγονότα, ἄχρις οὗ ὑπόφορος
καὶ ὑποτελής μοι γένηται" ἐντεῦθεν δὲ καὶ τὴν
᾿Ινδῶν καὶ τὴν Σαρακηνῶν περιοικίδα ἐκπορθῆσαι,
ἄχρις οὗ καὶ αὐτοὶ πάντες ἐν δευτέρᾳ τάξει βασι-
λείας γένωνται τῆς ἐμῆς ὑπόφοροι καὶ ὑποτελεῖς.
ἀλλ᾽ αὐτὸς ἐπέκεινα τῆς τούτων δυνάμεως πεφρό-
᾽ / \ / > 7 > ’
νηκας, εὐλάβειαν μὲν λέγων ἐνδεδύσθαι, ἀναίδειαν
δὲ προβαλλόμενος, καὶ πανταχοῦ διαφημίξων
1 Hertlein 75. It occurs in a great number of MSS., some-
times with the reply of Basil, also apocryphal, and in Basil,
Ltters 3. p. 122. The text is very corrupt.
35 ποικιλοκανθαρόμορφοι, “shaped like variegated beetles,”
Reiske, from εὐμορφοποικιλοκανθαρόμορφοι, the reading of
Palatinus 146.
1 This letter, generally recognised as spurious, is perhaps
a Christian forgery, since it gives an unfavourable impression
284
— ——
TO BASIL
81
To Basil 1
Up to the present I have displayed the innately
mild and humane temper that I have shown since
childhood, and have brought under my sway all
who dwell on the earth beneath the sun. For lo,
every tribe of barbarians as far as the boundaries of
the river of Ocean has come bringing gifts to lay
at my feet! And likewise the Sagadares? who are.
bred on the banks of the Danube, and the Cotti
with headdresses of many\shapes and colours, who
are not like the rest of mankind to look at, but have
a fierce and wild appearance. These at the present
time are grovelling in my footprints and promise to
do whatever suits my majesty’s pleasure. And not
only am I distracted by this, but I must with all
speed occupy the country of the Persians and put
to flight the great Sapor, who is the descendant
of Darius, until he consents to pay me tribute and
taxes. Afterwards I must also sack the settlements
of the Indians and Saracens, until they too shall
all take second plaee in my Empire and consent to
pay tribute and taxes. But you have in your own
person displayed a pride far exceeding the power
of all these, when you say that you are clothed in
pious reserve, but in fact flaunt your impudence, and
spread a rumour on all sides that I am not worthy
of Julian. The writer knew nothing of Julian’s style and
mannerisms. Julian was no boaster and avoided outlandish
words, It was probably read by Sozomen, 5. 18. 7, and is
of early date. Julian was in frequent correspondence with
Basil, and for their friendly relations cf. 70 Basil, Ὁ. 81.
2 This tribe cannot be identified. Julian himself always
calls the Danube ‘‘ Ister.”
285
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
n a ς ’ὔ , ,
ἀνάξιόν με τῆς τῶν «Ρωμαίων βασίλειας yeyove-
’ , la! -
vat. ἢ οὐκ οἶσθα αὐτός, ὡς ΚΚώνστα τοῦ κρατι-
/ Ὁ“
στου γέγονα ἀπόγονος ; καὶ τούτων οὕτω γνωσ-
a \ a / /
θέντων ἡμῖν σου ἕνεκα οὐδὲ τῆς προτέρας ἐξέστη-
/ e ” / ” a oe 7 b] ,
μεν διαθέσεως, ἧσπερ ἔτι νέοι ὄντες TH ἡλικίᾳ EY@
Ν a a
τε καὶ σὺ μετεσχήκαμεν. ἀλλὰ γαληνῷ τῷ Hpo-
’ ’ / ς / / “
νήματι θεσπίζω δέκα ἑκατοντάδας χρυσίου λιτρῶν
a la) a U
ἐξαποσταλῆναί μοι παρὰ cov ἐν TH παρόδῳ μου
n \ \ / 5 \ \ /
τῇ κατὰ THY Καίσαρος, ἔτι μου κατὰ τὴν λεωφο-
e / \ a a / / ,
pov ὑπάρχοντος, σὺν πολλῷ τῷ τάχει μελλοντος
Ἅ, , /
μου βαδίζειν ἐπὶ τὸν Leporxov πόλεμον, ἑτοίμου
᾿ > \ ἴω ,
ὄντος μου, εἰ μὴ τοῦτο ποιήσεις, πάντα τόπον
ἀνασκευάσαι τῆς Καίσαρος, καὶ τὰ πάλαι αὐτῆς
/ \
ἐγηγερμένα καλλιουργήματα κατασκάψαι κατὰ
n [γέ
τόπον, ναούς τε καὶ ἀγάλματα ἀναστῆσαι, ὥστε
a / ” ae , \ \
με πεῖσαι πάντας εἴκειν βασιλεῖ Ῥωμαίων καὶ μὴ
ς 7ὔ \ i 3 \ , 2
ὑπεραίρεσθαι. τὸ οὖν ἐξονομασθὲν χρυσίον ἐξ
a a a ᾽ὔ
ἀριθμοῦ ζυγῷ ΚΚαμπανῷ πρυτανίσας καὶ διαμετρὴ-
> n ΕῚ / U , > / rn
σας ἀσφαλῶς ἐξαπόστειλόν μοι δι᾽ οἰκείου πιστοῦ
an a «
σοι ὄντος, δακτυλίῳ τῷ σῷ σφραγισάμενος, ὥστε
al n \
με ἐπεγνωκότι, κἂν ὀψέ ποτε, TOD καιροῦ TO ἀπα-
\
ραίτητον γαληνὸν σοι γενέσθαι περὶ τὰ ἐπταισ-
/ /
μένα. ἃ yap ἀνέγνων, ἔγνων καὶ Katéyvev.t
1 This last sentence was probably not in the original letter
but was quoted as Julian’s by Sozomen 5. 18 and added to
this letter in some MSS. It occurs separately in one MB.,
Ambrosianus B 4, with the title πρὸς ἐπισκόπους (Cumont,
Recherches, p. 47).
286
2 ————— ον ὐδδιινδιννν.
Sh ...-
TO BASIL
to be Emperor of the Romans. What! Do you not
yourself know that I am a descendant of the most
mighty Constans? And although this your conduct
has come to my knowledge I have not, as concerns
you, departed from my former attitude—I mean that
mutual regard which you and I had when we
were young men of the same age. But with no
harshness of temper I decree that you shall despatch
to me one thousand pounds weight of gold, as I
march by Caesarea, to be paid without my leaving
the high-road, since I purpose to march with all
speed to carry on the war with Persia, and I am
prepared, if you do not do this, to lay waste the
whole district of Caesarea,! to tear down on the
spot those: fine buildings erected long ago, and to
set up instead temples and images, that so I may
persuade all men to submit to the Emperor of Rome
and not be inflated with conceit. Accordingly,
weigh the above-mentioned gold to that amount on
Campanian scales, oversee it yourself and measure
it carefully and despatch it safely to me by some-
one of your household in whom you have confidence,
and first seal it with your own seal-ring, so that, if
you have recognised, late though it be, that the
occasion admits of no evasion, I may deal mildly
with your errors of the past. For what I read, I
. understood and condemned.?
* Caesarea had had three fine temples destroyed by the
Christians. Julian ordered their restoration, confiscated the
estates of the Church, and imposed a fine of 300 Ibs. of gold,
cf. Sozomen 5. 9. 7. Julian’s death may have prevented
the enforcement of the penalty.
2 See below, frag. 14, p. 303.
287
LOL
C
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
82
Γάλλος καῖσαρ ᾿Ιουλιανῷ ἀδελφῷ χαίρειν *
Ἢ γειτνίασις τῆς χώρας, λέγω δὲ τὴς Ἰωνίας,
πλεῖστον ὅσον κέρδος εἰς ἡμᾶς ἤνεγκεν. ἀνιω-
μένους γὰρ ἡμᾶς καὶ δυσχεραίνοντας ἐπὶ ταῖς
πρώταις φήμαις παρεμυθήσατο. τί δὲ ἔστιν ὃ
λέγω, γνώσῃ. ἧκεν εἰς ἡμετέρας ἀκοὰς ἀποστῆς-
vat μέν σε τῆς προτέρας θρησκείας τῆς ἐκ προγό-
νων παραδοθείσης, ἐπὶ δὲ τὴν μάταιον δεισιδαι-
μονίαν ἐληλακέναι, οἴστρῳ τινὶ κακῷ συμβούλῳ
εἰς τοῦτο ἐλαθέντα. καὶ τί οὐκ ἔμελλον πάσχειν
δυσχεραίνων ; ὡς yap? εἰ μέν τι τῶν ἐν σοὶ καλῶν
διαβοώμενον γνοίην, κέρδος οἰκεῖον ἡγοῦμαι, οὕτω ὃ
δέ τι τῶν δυσχερῶν, ὅπερ οὐκ οἶμαι, ἐξίσης ζημίω-
μα μᾶλλον ἐμὸν νομίζω. ἐπὶ τούτοις οὖν ἀνιώμενόν
με ἡ παρουσία τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν ᾿Αετίου ηὔφραι-
νεν, ἀπαγγέλλοντος μὲν ἐναντία, ἡμῖν δὲ εὐκτά'
καὶ γὰρ σπουδάζειν σε ἔφη εἰς οἴκους εὐχῶν, καὶ
μὴ πόρρω τῆς μνείας τῶν ἀθλητῶν ἀνδρῶν ἀπο-
σπᾶσθαι, ὅλως δὲ ἔχεσθαι διεβεβαιοῦτο τῆς θεοσε-
1 No number in Hertlein. First published by Vulcanius,
Leyden, 1597 ; found only in Palatinus 209, Barberinus 132.
* γὰρ Hertlein would add. .
3 οὕτω δὲ Hertlein suggests; εἰ δὲ Reiske ; οὐ δὲ MSS.
1 Nearly all the critics reject this letter as a Christian
forgery, but it is defended by Seeck, Geschichte d. Unter-
gangs d. Antiken Welt, IV. 124, 440,6. Philostorgius 3. 27. 53,
Bidez, says that Gallus, Julian’s half-brother, who was a
Christian, frequently sent Aetius to instruct Julian in
Christian doctrine in order to counteract the influences
288
GALLUS CAESAR TO HIS BROTHER JULIAN
82
Letter from Gallus Caesar to his brother Julian 1
Ga.uus Caesar to his brother Julian, Greeting.
My nearness to the country, I mean to Ionia,?
has brought me the greatest possible gain. For it
gave me comfort when I was troubled and pained
at the first reports that came to me. You will
understand what I mean. It came to my ears that
you had abandoned your former mode of worship
which was handed down by our ancestors, and goaded
by some evil kind of madness that incited you to
this, had betaken yourself to that vain superstition.
What pain should I not have suffered? For just as
whenever I learn by public rumour of any noble
quality in you I regard it as a personal gain, so too
if I hear of anything disturbing, which, however, I
do not think I shall, in the same way I consider it
even more my personal loss. Therefore when I was
troubled about these matters, the presence of our
father Aetius* cheered me, for he reported the
very contrary, which was what I prayed to hear.
Moreover he said that you were zealous in attend-
ance at the houses of prayer, and that you are not
being drawn away from pious remembrance of the
martyrs, and he affirmed that you entirely adhere to
that inclined him to paganism. If genuine it must be
dated between 351, when Gallus was made Cesar, and
354, as Gallus was put to death by Constantius in the
latter year.
2 Gallus Caesar resided at Antioch till 354 when he went
to Constantinople. Julian, meanwhile, was studying at
Pergamon and Ephesus. For his relations with Gallus,
see Vol. 2, 70 the Athenians 273 A.
8 For Aetius see Introduction and Letter 15.
289
VOL, III, U
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
nw “Ὁ x 7
455 Betas τῶν ἡμετέρων. ἐγὼ δέ σοι τοῦτ᾽ ἂν εἴποιμι
κατὰ τὸ ‘Ounpixov Bard οὕτως, καὶ ἐπὶ τοιαύ-
ταῖς μνείαις εὔφραινε τοὺς ἀγαπῶντας, μεμνη-
μένος ὡς οὐκ ἔστι τι θεοσεβείας ἀνώτερον. ἡ γὰρ
εἰς ἄκρον ἀρετὴ παιδεύει τὸ μὲν ψεῦδος ὡς ἀπατη-
λὸν μισεῖν, τοῦ δὲ ἀληθοῦς ἔχεσθαι, ὅπερ μάλιστα
ἐν τῇ περὶ τὸ θεῖον φαίνεται θρησκείᾳ. ὄχλος γὰρ
πάντως φιλόνεικον καὶ ἄστατον" τὸ δὲ μόνον σὺν
ἑνὶ 53. ὑπουργὸν ὃν βασιλεύει τοῦ παντός, οὐκ ἐκ
δασμοῦ καὶ κλήρου, καθάπερ οἱ Κρόνου παῖδες,
ἀλλ᾽ αὐτοαρχὴ ὄν, καὶ κρατοῦν τῶν ἁπάντων, οὐδὲ
δεξάμενον βίᾳ map ἑτέρου, ἀλλὰ πρὸ πάντων ὄν.
᾿ ν ΠΩΣ
τοῦτο ὄντως θεός, ὅνπερ σὺν τῷ ὀφειλομένῳ σεβασ-
ματι προσκυνεῖν χρή. ἔρρωσο.
83
Ιουλιανῷ Εὐστάθιος φιλόσοφος *
‘Os ὦνησέ γε τὸ σύνθημα ἡμῖν μεχλλῆσαν" ἀντὶ
γὰρ τοῦ τρέμειν καὶ δεδιέναι φερόμενον ἐπὶ τῆς
δημοσίας ἀπήνης καὶ περιπίπτοντα κραυπαλῶσιν
ὀρεωκόμοις καὶ ἡμιόνοις ἀκοστήσασι καθ᾽ Ὅμηρον
δι’ ἀργίαν καὶ πλησμονὴν ἀνέχεσθαι κονιορτοῦ καὶ
1 Reiske deletes κατά.
3 Heyler suggests that οὐδενὶ ὑπουργὸν ‘subservient to
none” would be more appropriate to Gallus, who was an
Arian. In any case, Heyler’s reading gives a better sense
to ὑπουργόν.
3 παρ᾽ ἑτέρου Reiske suggests; ἕτερον MSS., Hertlein.
4 Hertlein 72. The above is the correct title preserved in
Parisinus 963 after the incorrect A:iBavly σοφιστῇ καὶ κοιαίστωρι
retained in brackets by Hertlein.
290
EUSTATHIUS TO JULIAN
the religion of our family. So I would say to you
in the words of Homer,! “Shoot on in this wise,”
and rejoice those who love you by being spoken of
in such terms, remembering that nothing is higher
than religion. For supreme virtue teaches us to
hate a lie as treachery and to cling to the truth,
which truth is most clearly made manifest in the
worship of the Divine Being. For a crowd? is
wholly contentious and unstable; but the Deity,
ministering alone with but one other,® rules the
universe, not by division or lot, like the sons of
Cronos,* but existing from the beginning and having
power over all things, not having received it from
another by violence, but existing before all. This is
verily God, whom we must adore with the reverence
that we owe to him. Farewell!
83
Eustathius ® the Philosopher to Julian
Wuart an advantage it was for me that the token ®
came late! For instead of riding, in fear and
trembling, in the public? carriage and, in encounters
with drunken mule-drivers and mules made restive,
as Homer® says, from idleness and overfeeding,
1 Iliad 8. 282; Agamemnon to Teucer the archer.
2 i.e, of the gods.
° 7.e, God the Word; but see critical note.
‘ i.e. Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, whose separate realms
are defined in Jliad 15. 187 foll.
5 See Introduction, under Eustathius.
6 The ‘‘ tessera,” whether ring, coin or document, served
as a passport.
1 The epithet δημόσιος is used (1) of the public carriage,
(2) of the ‘‘ state,” or reserved, carriage. The first is meant
here. 8 Tliad 6. 506.
201
THE APOCRYPHAL LETTERS
φωνῆς ἀλλοκότου καὶ ψόφου μαστίγων, βαδίζειν
ἐπὶ σχολῆς περιέστη μοι. δι’ ὁδοῦ συνηρεφοῦς καὶ
ἐπισκίου, π πολλὰς μὲν κρήνας, πολλὰς δὲ “ἐχούσης
καταγωγὰς ἐπιτηδείους τῇ ὥρᾳ μεταξὺ τὸν κόπον
διαναπαύοντι, i ἵνα μοι φανείη κατάλυσις εὔπνους
τε καὶ ἀμφιλαφὴς ὑ ὑπὸ πλατάνοις τισὶν 4 κυπαρίτ-
τοις, τὸν Φαῖδρον ἔ ἔχοντι ἐν χερσὶ ἢ ἕτερόν τίνα
τῶν Πλάτωνος λόγων. ταῦτά τοι, ὦ φίλη κεφαλή,
ἀπολαύων τῆς ἐλευθέρας ὁδοιπορίας, ἄτοπον ὑπέ-
λαβον τὸ μὴ καὶ τοῦτο κοινώσασθαί σοι καὶ
ἀποσημῆναι.
1 After χερσὶ MSS add τὸν Μυρρινούσιον which Hertlein would
delete as inappropriate to the title of Plato’s dialogue,
202
EUSTATHIUS TO JULIAN
having to endure clouds of dust and a strange
dialect and the cracking of whips, it was my lot
to travel at leisure by a road arched over with trees
and well-shaded, a road that had numerous springs
and resting-places suitable to the summer season
for a traveller who seeks relief from his weariness
on the way; and where I always found a good place
to stop, airy and shaded by plane trees or cypresses,
while in my hand I held the Phaedrus or some other
of Plato’s dialogues. Now all this profit, O beloved,
I gained from the freedom with which I travelled ;
therefore 1 considered that it would be unnatural not
to communicate this also to you, and announce it.!
1 The journey of Eustathius is probably that for which
Julian gave his permission in Letter 44.
FRAGMENTA BREVIORA?
1
Tis οὖν ἀγνοεῖ tov Αἰθιόπων ὑπὲρ τοῦ παρ᾽
ἡμῖν τροφιμωτάτου σιτίου λόγον ; ἁψάμενοι γὰρ
τῆς μάζης θαυμάζειν ἔφασαν, ὅπως κόπρια σιτού-
μενοι ζῶμεν, εἴ τῳ πιστὸς ὁ Θούριος εἶναι λογο-
ποιὸς δοκεῖ. ἰχθυοφάγων δὲ καὶ σαρκοφάγων
ἀνθρώπων γένη μηδ᾽ ὄναρ ἰδόντα τὴν παρ ἡμῖν
δίαιταν οἱ τὴν οἰκουμένην περιηγούμενοι γῆν
ἱστοροῦσιν. ὧν εἴ τις παρ᾽ ἡμῖν ζηλῶσαι τὴν
δίαιταν ἐπιχειρήσει, οὐδὲν ἄμεινον διακείσεται
τῶν τὸ κώνειον προσενεγκαμένων ἢ τὴν ἀκόνιτον
ἢ τὸν ἑλλέβορον."
2
Πρὸς τὴν ‘Epxuviav ὕλην ἐθέομεν, καὶ εἶδον
ἐγὼ χρῆμα ἐξαίσιον. ἰδοὺ γοῦν σοι θαρρῶν ἐγὼ
ἐγγυῶμαι, μήποτε ὦφθαι τοιοῦτον μηδέν, ὅσα γε
ἡμεῖς ἴσμεν, ἐν τῇ Ῥωμαίων. ἀλλ᾽ εἴτε τὰ
Θετταλικὰ Τέμπη δύσβατα νομίζει τις, εἴτε τὰς
1 Hertlein Fragments 1 and 3 have been restored to their
proper context in Letter 16, pp. 38 and 36.
_ * Hertlein frag. 2. Quoted by Suidas under Ἡρόδοτος and
ὧν. « « €AA€Bopoy again under Ζηλῶσαι.
Na Herodotus 3. 22 describes the amazement of the Ethio-
pians, who lived on boiled meat, at the diet of the Persians.
294
|
:
|
:
a
as
THE SHORTER FRAGMENTS
1
Tuen who does not know the saying of the
Ethiopians about the food that with us is held to
be most nutritious? For when they first handled
bread they said they wondered how we manage to
live on a diet of dung, that is if one may believe the
Thurian chronicler.1 And those who write des-
criptions of the world relate that there are races of
men who live on fish and flesh? and have never
even dreamed of our kind of diet. But if anyone
in our country tries to adopt their diet, he will be
no better off than those who take a dose of hemlock
or aconite or hellebore.
2
We hastened to the Hercynian forest and it was
a strange and monstrous thing that I beheld. At
any rate I do not hesitate to engage that nothing
of the sort has ever been seen in the Roman
Empire, at least as far as we know. But if anyone
considers Thessalian Tempe or Thermopylae or the
They said they were not surprised that men who lived on
such food attained to a maximum of only eighty years. For
the different temperaments and customs of different peoples
οἵ, Against the Galilaeans, 1438.
2 Cf. vol. 2, Oration 6. 1910 for Julian’s remarks on diet.
295
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
Θερμοπύλας, εἴτε τὸν μέγαν καὶ διωλύγιον Ταῦρον,
ἐλάχιστα ἴστω χαλεπότητος ἕνεκα πρὸς τὸ
‘Epxvviov ὄντα.
3
Ἰουλιανὸς ection
ἐξ πατρῴα μοι πρὸς ὑμᾶς ὑπάρχει φιλία:
καὶ γὰρ κησε παρ᾽ ὑμῖν ὁ ἐμὸς πατήρ, κα
ἀναχθεὶς ἔνθεν,3 ὥσπερ ἐκ Φαιάκων ᾿Οδυσσεύς,
τῆς πολυχρονίου πλάνης ἀπηλλάγη ... ἐνταῦθα
ὁ πατὴρ ἀνεπαύσατο.
4
ἐνὸν Kal ὁ κλεινὸς ὁ ἡμῖν ἔδειξε ἱεροφάντης
᾿Ιάμβλιχος . . « ἡμεῖς δὲ ᾿Εμπεδοτίμῳ καὶ
Πυθαγόρᾳ πιστεύοντες οἷς τε ἐκεῖθεν λαβὼν
Ἡρακλείδης ὁ ἸΠοντικὸς ἔφη.". ..
1 Hertlein 4. Quoted by Suidas under Χρῆμα.
2 ἐνθένδε Hertlein.
3 Hertlein 5. Quoted by Libanius, Oration 14, 29, 30. For
Aristophanes (of Corinth). 4 ἥρως Asmus ‘adds.
δ Hertlein 6. Quoted by Suidas from the Kronia, under
᾿Ἐμπεδότιμος and ᾿Ιουλιανός. This fragment is all that survives
of Julian’s Kronia or Saturnalia, written in 361; see Vol. 1,
Oration 4. 1570. We know nothing more as to its contents.
1 Julian, Oration 2,101 Ὁ. The Greek word is Platonic,
cf. Theaetetus 161 D.
3 For Julian’s knowledge of the Hercynian forest, which
in ancient Germany extended from the Black Forest on the
north-east to the Hartz Mountains, cf. Vol. 2, AMisopogon
3598; Ammianus, 17. 1. 8 Cum prope silvam venisset
squalore tenebrarum horrendam ... ὦ.6. in his German
cainpaign in 357; Zosimus, 3. 4. ὃ ἄχρι τῶν ‘Epxwlev δρυμῶν
τοὺς φεύγοντας ὁ Καῖσαρ ἐπιδιώξας.
206
THE SHORTER FRAGMENTS
great and far-flung! Taurus to be impassable, let me
tell him that for difficulty of approach they are trivial
indeed compared with the Hercynian forest.?
9
To the Corinthians 3
. . . My friendship with you dates from my
father’s* time. For indeed my father lived in your
city, and embarking thence, like Odysseus from the
land of the Phaeacians, had respite from his long-
protracted wanderings®. . . there my father found
repose.
4
οὖν and the famous hierophant Iamblichus showed
it tous . .. and we, since we believed the account
of Empedotimus ὁ and Pythagoras, as well as that of
Heracleides of Pontus who derived it from them.’ . . .
8. This is all that remains of the manifesto sent to the
Corinthians by Julian in 361, when he sought to justify his
defection from Constantius,
* Julius Constantius was murdered by his nephew, the
Emperor Constantius, in 337.
5 Libanius says that Julian here spoke briefly about the
** wicked stepmother ” of Julius, the Empress Helena, mother
of Constantine, see Zosimus 2. 8 and 9.
6 For this famous Syracusan, who claimed to be immortal,
see Vol. 2, 2908.
? Geffcken points out that Julian’s statement is derived
from a commentary on Plato and quotes Proclus, On Plato’s
Republic 2. 119. 18. ‘*The human soul may learn the sacred
truth about the affairs of the underworld and report them
to mankind. This is shown by the account of Empedotimus,
which Heracleides of Pontus relates.” Then follows the
vision of Empedotimus in Hades; cf. Rohde, Psyche,
p. 385,
297
τ
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
5
, " v 1
. . . μόνον εὔχεσθαι ἤδεσαν.
6
. 2. ἵνα 3 μὴ ἀκονώμενοι τὴν γλῶτταν ὃ ἑτοίμως
πρὸς τοὺς διαλεκτικὸυς τῶν ᾿Ελλήνων ἀπαντῶσιν.
3
7
. 4. τοῖς οἰκείοις γὰρ πτεροῖς κατὰ τὴν παροι-
μίαν βαλλόμεθα. ἐκ yap τῶν ἡμετέρων συγ-
γραμμάτων καθοπλιζόμενοι τὸν καθ᾽ ἡμῶν ἀνα-
δέχονται πόλεμον."
ὃ
\ “ Ν 4
Τὸ μὴ προϊδέσθαι τό τε δυνατὸν καὶ TO adv-
vatov ἐν πράγμασι τῆς ἐσχάτης ἀπονοίας ἐστὶ
σημεῖον.ὅ
1 Hertlein 7. Quoted by Zosimus 3. 3. 2 οἱ δὲ παρὰ
Κωνσταντίου δοθέντες αὐτῷ . . . μόνον εὔχεσθαι, καθάπερ αὐτός
πού φησιν, ἤδεσαν, cf. Vol. 2, 277p, p. 267, Wright.
2 Hertlein 8. Quoted by Socrates, History of the Church
3. 12; cf. Suidas under Μάρις. Socrates is quoting from
an edict forbidding Christians to teach the classics; but in
the extant edict, Letter 36, these words do not occur.
8 Cf. Libanius, Letter 1588, 70 Julian, αὐτὴν (Se. τὴν
γλῶτταν) &kor ὧν.
4 Hertlein 9. Quoted by Theodoret, History of the Church,
3. 4. Theodoret, like Socrates frag. 6, quotes Julian on the
Christian teachers of the classics.
5 Hertlein 10. Quoted by Suidas under ᾿Απόνοια.
1 Julian said this of the soldiers who were assigned to him
by Constantius when he went to Gaul in 355; cf. Libanius
298
THE SHORTER FRAGMENTS
5
Tuey only knew how to pray !
6
. . that they? may not, by sharpening their
tongues,? be prepared to meet their Hellenic
opponents in debate.
7
. . . forin the words of the proverb, we are stricken
by our own arrows.* For from our own writings
they ὅ take the weapons wherewith they engage in
the war against us.
8
Not to see beforehand what is possible and what
impossible in practical affairs is a sign of the utmost
foolishness.®
18. 94 ἕως αὐτῷ κατέλιπον ὁπλίτας εὔξασθαι μόνον δυναμένους,
said of the soldiers who were to be Jeft with Julian when
Constantius summoned the best of the Gallic army to the
Kast in 360,
2 4,6. the Christians,
3 i.e. by the study of rhetoric.
4 i.e. the arrows are feathered from our plumage; cf.
Aristophanes, Birds 808 τάδ᾽ οὐχ im ἄλλων ἀλλὰ τοῖς αὑτῶν
πτέροις. The figure is used by Byron, Waller and Moore of
a wounded eagle ‘‘ Which on the shaft that made him die,
espied a feather of his own.” The original is Aeschylus,
Myrmidons, frag. 139.
5 7.¢e. the Christians.
6 This is apparently a criticism of that lack of political
instinct in the Christians of which Julian speaks in his
treatise Against the Galilaeans, fragment 5. Hence Neumann
regards the above fragment as derived from a lost part of
the treatise.
299
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
9
Λέγει (sc. ὁ ᾿Τουλιανὸς) οὖν ἐπιστέλλων" Σκύθαι
δὲ νῦν μὲν ἀτρεμοῦσι, ἴσως δὲ οὐκ ἀτρεμήσουσιν.ἷ
10
Πρὸς τριβοῦνον Εὐὐθυμέλην 3
Ἡδονὴ βασιλεῖ πόλεμος.
11
’ , \ \ , / Χ \
Aveyeipw yap μετὰ πάσης προθυμίας τὸν ναὸν
τοῦ ὑψίστου θεοῦ.3
12
Πρὸς δῆμον εὐφημήσαντα ἐν τῷ Τυχαίῳ ἢ
Ei μὲν εἰς τὸ θέατρον λαθὼν εἰσῆλθον, εὐφη-
petite’ εἰ δὲ εἰς τὰ ἱερά, ἡσυχίαν ἄγετε, καὶ
1 Not in Hertlein. Preserved by Eunapius, frag. 22, p.
226, 15, Dindorf.
2 Not in Hertlein. It occurs in Ambrosianus, B 4, with
other sayings of the Emperor; Cumont, Recherches, p. 47,
thinks that they are derived from some lost historical work.
8. Not in Hertlein. Preserved by Lydus, De Mensibus.
See Cumont, Recherches, p. 17, note 1.
4 Hertlein, Letter 64. First published by Muratori in
Anecdola Grueca, Padua, 1709.
‘ In 360 Constantius bribed the Scythians to aid him in
his campaign against the Persians (Ammianus 20, 8. 1), and
in 363 Julian employed Scythian auxiliaries for the same
purpose (Ammianus 23. 2.7). It is uncertain to which of
these dates the fragment refers ; Eunapius quotes this remark
as evidence of Julian’s foresight.
300
THE SHORTER FRAGMENTS
9
AccorDINGLy he says in a letter: At present the
Scythians! are not restless, but perhaps they will
become restless.
10
To Euthymeles the Tribune
A kine delights in war.
11
For I am rebuilding with all zeal the temple of the
Most High God.?_ |
12
To the citizens who acclaimed him in the temple
of Fortune ὃ
WueEn 1 enter the theatre unannounced,’ acclaim
me, but when I enter the temples be silent® and
2 Lydus says. that Julian wrote this to the Jews. The
letter is lost. For Julian’s design of rebuilding the Temple
see Letter 51 and Introduction.
8 At Constantinople there was a temple of Fortune (Τυχή)
with a statue of the Goddess, cf. Socrates 3. 11. It was when
Julian was sacrificing in this temple that he was denounced
by the blind Bishop Maris of Chalcedon, as related by
Sozomen 5. 4. Butas Julian in the J/isopogon 3408 speaks
twice of sacrificing at Antioch in the temple of Fortune, this
admonition may have been addressed to the citizens of
Antioch, late in 362 or early in 363.
4 For Julian’s rare visits to the theatre, see Misopogon 3890,
368c. For. his love of applause, Ammianus 25. 4. 18 volgi
plausibus laetus.
5 Cf. Vol. 2. Misopogon 3448,c, where Julian reproves the
citizens of Antioch for applauding him in the temples.
301
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
μετενέγκατε ὑμῶν τὰς εὐφημίας eis τοὺς θεούς"
lal \ al na /
μᾶλλον δὲ of θεοὶ τῶν εὐφημιῶν ob χρήξουσιν.
13
II pos ζωγράφον 1
Ei μὲν μὴ εἶχον 3 καὶ ἐχαρίσω μοι, συγγνώμης
4
ἦσθα ἄξιος" εἰ δὲ εἶχον μέν, οὐκ ἐχρησάμην δέ,
τοὺς θεοὺς ἔφερον, μᾶλλον δὲ ὑπὸ τῶν θεῶν
4 ᾽ a a /
ἐφερόμην. σύ μοι ἀλλότριον σχῆμα πῶς ἐδίδους,
ἑταῖρε; οἷόν με εἶδες, τοιοῦτον καὶ γράψον.
14
Πρὸς ἐπισκόπους ὃ.
ἔγνων, ἀνέγνων κατέγνων.
1 Hertlein, Letter 65.
2 εἰκὼν ἢ Muratori.
3 Not in Hertlein. Quoted by Sozomen 5. 18, In some
MSS. it occurs at the end of Letter 81, 70 Basil.
1 This and the following fragment, wrongly placed among
the letters by Hertlein and earlier editors, are, as Cumont
saw, isolated mots historiques probably quoted from some
historical work. They may have occurred in an edict.
2 Sozomen 5, 17. says that Julian had himself painted ‘‘ on
the public pictures” in juxtaposition with Zeus or Ares or
Hermes in order that the people might be compelled when they
saluted the Emperor to salute the gods also, and that few
302
THE SHORTER FRAGMENTS
transfer your acclamations to the gods; or rather the
gods do not need acclamations.+
13
To a Painter 3
Ir I did not possess it? and you had bestowed it on
me, you would have deserved to be forgiven ; but if
I possessed it and did not use it, I carried the gods,
or rather was carried by them. Why, my friend, did
you give me a form other than my own? Paint me
exactly as you saw me,
14
To.the Bishops
I RECOGNISED, I read, 1 condemned.*
had the courage to refuse to conform with this established
custom ; ef. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 4. 81.
3 Whether because of mutilation or lack of context, the
two first sentences are unintelligible ; we do not know the
object of the verbs or what is meant by the reference to
the gods ; but evidently Julian did not like his portrait,
4 Sozomen 5, 18 says that Julian, in order to ridicule the
Christian substitutes for the Greek classics, composed chiefly
by Apollinaris, after Julian had forbidden Christians to teach
the originals, wrote these words to the Bishops, Their answer
was as follows: ‘** You have read, but you have not understood ;
for, had you understood, you would not have condemned,”
See Letter 81, To Basil, p. 286.
393
EPIGRAMMATA
1
Els οἶνον ἀπὸ κριθῆς
τίς πόθεν εἷς, Διόνυσε; μὰ γὰρ τὸν ἀλαθέα
“Βάκχον
οὔ σ᾽ ἐπιγιγνώσκω" τὸν Διὸς οἶδα μόνον.
κεῖνος νέκταρ ὄδωδε, σὺ δὲ τράγον. % ῥά σε
Κελτοὶ
τῇ πενίῃ βοτρύων τεῦξαν ἀπ᾽ ἀσταχύων.
τῷ σε χρὴ καλέειν Δημήτριον, οὐ Διόνυσον,
πυρογενῆ μᾶλλον καὶ Βρόμον, οὐ Βρόμιον.
2
Eis τὸ ὄργανον 2
ἀλλοίην ὁρόω δονάκων φύσιν. ἥπου ἀπ᾽ ἄλλης
αλκείης τάχα μᾶλλον ἀνεβλάστησαν ἀρούρης
ἄγριοι: οὐδ᾽ ἀνέμοισιν ὑφ᾽ ἡμετέροις ὃ δονέονται,
ἀλλ᾽ ἀπὸ ταυρείης προθορὼν σπήλυγγος ἀήτης
νέρθεν ἐὐτρήτων καλάμων ὑπὸ ῥίζαν ὁδεύει.
1 Hertlein 1. Palatine Anthology 9. 365, and in several
᾿
3 Hertlein 2; The Greek Anthology vol. 3, 365, Paton; it is
found in Parisinus 690. 3 heplos Cumont.
1 i.e. beer, which Julian met with in Gaul and Germany.
304
eee
ee
EPIGRAMS
1
On wine made from barley 1
Wuo art thou and whence, O Dionysus? By the
true Bacchus 1 recognise thee not ; I know only the
son of Zeus. He smells of nectar, but you smell of
goat. ‘Truly it was in their lack of grapes that the
Celts brewed thee from corn-ears. So we should call
thee Demetrius,? not Dionysus, wheat-born 8 not fire-
born, barley god not boisterous god.
ςς
2
On the Organ
A sTRANGE growth of reeds do I behold. Surely
they sprang on a sudden from another brazen field,
so wild are they. The winds that wave them are
none of ours, but a blast leaps forth from a cavern of
bull’s hide and beneath the well-bored pipes travels
to their roots. And a dignified person, with swift
2 ἡ, 6. son of Demeter goddess of corn,
3 πῦρογενῆῇ, not ripoyev7, a play on words. See The Greek
Anthology, Vol. 3. 368, Paton.
4 βρόμος means ‘‘ oats”; Bromius ‘‘ boisterous” was an
epithet of Dionysus ; it is impossible to represent the play on
the words,
3°5
VOL, Ill. x
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
καί τις ἀνὴρ ἀγέρωχος, ἔχων θοὰ δάκτυλα
,
χειρός,
“ 3 , ’ὔ
ἵσταται ἀμφαφόων κανόνας συμφράδμονας͵
αὐλῶν,"
οἱ δ᾽ ἁπαλὸν σκιρτῶντες ἀποθλίβουσιν ἀοιδήν.
9
Αἴ > Φ 1
LLY LA ELS KOVTOTALK THY
ἔστιν τι δένδρον τῶν ἀνακτόρων μέσον,
Ὁ ἘΠῚ \ A \ a a [τ ‘s
ov ῥίζα καὶ ζῇ καὶ λαλεῖ καρποῖς ἅμα
a ΝΥΝ “ \ 7 /
μιᾷ δ᾽ ἐν ὥρᾳ καὶ φυτεύεται ξένως
καὶ καρπὸν αὔξει καὶ τρυγᾶται ῥιζόθεν.
4
/
εἰς τὸν παρόντα Ομηρικὸν στίχον ἕξ πόδας
ἔχοντα ὧν οἱ τρεῖς εἰσι δάκτυλοι 3
κούρη ᾿Ικαρίοιο περίφρων Ἰ]ηνελόπεια
ἕξ ποσὶν ἐμβεβαυῖα τριδάκτυλος ἐξεφαάνθη.
1 Hertlein 3. Palatine Anthology vol. 2. p. 769.
2 Hertlein 4. Anthology 2. 659.
1 A note in the MS. (Parisinus 690) explains that Julian
composed this poem during a procession, when he was leaving
the church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople. He was
306
EPIGRAMS
moving fingers of the hand, stands there and handles
the keys that pass the word to the pipes; then the
keys leap lightly, and press forth the melody.!
3
Riddle on a performer with a pole
Tuere_ is a tree between the lords, whose root has
life and talks, and the fruits likewise. And in a
single hour it grows in strange fashion, and ripens its
fruit, and gets its harvest at the roots.?
4
On the Homeric hexameter which contains six
feet of which three are dactyls
“Tue daughter of Icarius, prudent Penelope,”
appears with three fingers ὃ and walks on six feet.
__ then a mere boy, pursuing his education in Constantinople,
before he was interned in Cappadocia.
3 The performer balances on his forehead, between his
temples, a pole at the end of which is a cage or bar, supporting
a child or children.
8 There is a play of words on δάκτυλος = “ finger” and
** dactyl,” a metrical foot. In the title, ‘* foot ” and *‘ dactyl”
_ are metrical terms, in the riddle they are used in the original,
physical sense. The hexameter quoted has three dactyls.
oR | 307
1 x 2
ταν το tie er
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
5
Εἰς ἱπποκένταυρον t
ἀνδρόθεν ἐκκέχυθ᾽ ἵππος, ἀνέδραμε δ᾽ ἱππόθεν
ἀνήρ,
ἀνὴρ vor pi ποδῶν, κεφαλῆς δ᾽ ἄτερ αἰόλος
ἵππος"
ἵππος ἐρεύγεται ἄνδρα, ἀνὴρ δ᾽ ἀποπέρδεται
ἵππον.
6
Ιουλιανοῦ τοῦ παραβάτου 5
ὡς ἐθέλει τὸ φέρον σε
φέρειν, φέρου" ἢν δ᾽ ἀπιθήσῃς,
καὶ σαυτὸν βλάψεις, καὶ τὸ
φέρον σε φέρει.
1 Hertlein 6. Assigned to Julian by Tzetzes Chiliades
959 ; Anthology, vol. 2, p. 659.
EPIGRAMS
5
To a Hippocentaur
A norseE has been poured from a man’s mould, a
man springs up from a horse, ‘The man has no feet,
the swift moving horse has no head. The horse
belches forth as a man, the man breaks wind as a
horse.
6
By Julian the Apostate
Even as Fate the Sweeper wills to sweep thee
on, be thou swept. But if thou rebel, thou wilt but
harm thyself, and Fate still sweeps thee on.!
1 Perhaps there is a similar meaning in the phrase ὑπὸ τῶν
θεῶν. ἐφερόμην in the puzzling frag. 13, p. 303.
2 Not in Hertlein. First ascribed to Julian, from Baroc-
cianus 133, by Cumont, Revue de Philologie, 1892. Also
ascribed to §t. Basil; cf. a similar epigram in Palatine
Anthology 10. 73, ascribed to Palladas.
399
-
”
US thar” Lae δὲ
: Cs oe, ον
f essa
; i? ory i
Oh ray τς
᾿ a
eet sy) ῬΑ Ed
cag ee
=e Ἦν ὦ amy :
‘ 7 v ὼς ei,
᾿ δ ae
ie
Pi “de a >
F ; Ff
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
Ἶ ‘A
ἐ Γ
ΗΑ.
ru ν i ἊΝ .“ ᾿ ὗ ἦν
ΜΝ Pil "ἢ ' on) ee TA δ ον
INTRODUCTION
Juan, like Epictetus, always calls the Christians
Galilaeans? because he wishes to emphasise that this
was a local creed, “the creed of fishermen,’ and
perhaps to remind his readers that “out of Galilee
ariseth no prophet” ;? with the same intention he
calls Christ “the Nazarene.”* His chief aim in the
treatise was to show that there is no evidence in the
Old Testament for the idea of Christianity, so that
the Christians have no right to regard their teaching
as a development of Judaism. His attitude through-
out is that of a philosopher who rejects the claims of
one small sect to have set up a universal religion.
He speaks with respect of the God of the Hebrews,
admires the Jewish discipline, their sacrifices and
their prohibition of certain foods, plays off the Jews
against the Christians, and reproaches the latter for
having abandoned the Mosaic law; but he contrasts
the jealous, exclusive “ particular” (μερικός) Hebraic
God with the universal Hellenic gods who do not
confine their attentions to’a small and unimportant
portion of the world. Throughout Julian’s works
1 Cf. Gregory Nazianzen, First Invective Against Julian 76
(115), Γαλιλαίους ἀντὶ Χριστιανῶν ὀνομάσας καὶ καλεῖσθαι νομο-
Gerhoas* This wasignored by Neumann in his reconstruction
of the work, which he entitled Κατὰ Χριστιανῶν, Cf. Socrates
3. 12,
2 John 7. 52.
3. Tu the fragmentary Letter 55, To Photinus, p. 189.
333
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
there are scattered references, nearly always dis-
dainful, to the Galilaeans, but his formal attack on
their creed and on the inconsistencies of the
Scriptures, which he had promised in Letter 55,
To Photinus, the heretic, was not given to the general
public, for whom he says he intends it, till he had
left Antioch on his march to Persia in the early
spring of 363. He probably compiled it at Antioch
in the preceding winter.t Perhaps it was never
completed, for at the time Julian had many things
on his mind. It was written in three Books, but the
fragments preserved are almost entirely from Book I.
In the fifth century Cyril of Alexandria regarded the
treatise as peculiarly dangerous, and said that it had
shaken many believers. He undertook to refute it
in a polemic of which about half survives, and from
the quotations of Julian in Cyril’s work Neumann
has skilfully reconstructed considerable portions of
the treatise. Cyril had rearranged Julian’s hurriedly
written polemic, in order to avoid repetitions and to
bring similar subjects together. Moreover, he says
that he omitted invectives against Christ and such
matter as might contaminate the minds of Christians.
We have seen that a similar mutilation of the letters
occurred for similar reasons.
Julian’s arguments against the Christian doctrine
do not greatly differ from those used in the second
century by Celsus, and by Porphyry in the third; but
+ Libanius, in his Monody on Julian, says that at Antioch
there were composed by the Emperor βιβλίων συγγραφαὶ
βοηθούντων θεοῖς ; in the Epitaph on Julian, that the attack
on Christian doctrines was composed in the long nights of
winter, 7. 6. 362-363, at Antioch, where he spent the winter
with Julian.
314
ee =
INTRODUCTION
his tone is more like that of Celsus, for he and Celsus
were alike in being embittered opponents of the
Christian religion, which Porphyry was not. Those
engaged in this sort of controversy use the same
weapons over and over again ; Origen refutes Celsus,
Cyril refutes Julian,in much the same terms. Both
sides have had the education of sophists, possess the
learning of their time, borrow freely from Plato,
attack the rules or lack of rules of diet of the oppo-
nents’ party, point out the inconsistencies in the
rival creed, and ignore the weaknesses of their own.
For his task Julian had been well equipped by his
Christian teachers when he was interned at Macellum ἡ
in Cappadocia, and he here repays them for the
enforced studies of his boyhood, when his naturally
pagan soul rebelled against the Christian ritual in
which he had to take part. In spite of his insistence
on the inconsistency of the Christians in setting up
a Trinity in place of the monotheism of Moses and
the prophets, he feels the need of some figure in his
own pantheon to balance that of Christ the Saviour,
and uses, both in this treatise and in Oration 4, about
Asclepius or Dionysus or Heracles almost the
language of the Christians about Christ, setting these
pagan figures up one after another as mani-
festations of the divine beneficence in making a link
between the gods and mankind.
Though Julian borrowed from Porphyry’s lost
polemic in fifteen Books,? he does not discuss
1 Geffcken, Zwei Griechische Apologeten, p. 259, speaks of a
Chinese polemic against Christianity, composed according to
the regular conventions of this type.
2 On Julian’s debt to Porphyry, and his lack of sympathy
with Porphyry’s attitude to religion, see Harnack, Porphyrius,
Berlin, 1916; Bidez, Vie de Porphyre, Gand, 1913.
315
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
questions of the chronology and authorship of the
Seriptures as Porphyry is known to have done.
Libanius, always a blind admirer of Julian, says + that
in this treatise the Emperor made the doctrines of
the Christians look ridiculous, and that he was
“ wiser than the Tyrian old man,” that is, Porphyry.
But apparently the Christians of the next two
centuries did not agree with Cyril as to the pecu-
liarly dangerous character of Julian’s invective. At
any rate, the Council of Ephesus, in a decree dated
431, sentenced Porphyry’s books to be burned, but
did not mention Julian’s; and again in a law of
Theodosius II. in 448, Julian was ignored while
Porphyry was condemned. When in 529 Justinian
decreed that anti-Christian books were to be burned,
Porphyry alone was named, though probably Julian
was meant to be included. Not long after Julian’s
death his fellow-student at Athens, Gregory Nazian-
zen, wrote a long invective against him, in which he
attacked the treatise Against the Galilaeans without
making a formal refutation of Julian’s arguments.
Others in the fifth century, such as Theodorus of
Mopsuestia and Philip Sideta, wrote refutations
which are lost. Butit was reserved for Cyril, Bishop
of Alexandria, writing between 429 and 441, to
compose a long and formal refutation of Julian’s
treatise ; the latter seems to have been no longer in
circulation, or was at least neglected, and Neumann
thinks that the bishop was urged to write his polemic
by his dislike of the heretical views of other and
earlier antagonists of Julian, especially ‘Theodorus ot
Mopsuestia. This refutation, which was dedicated to
the Emperor Theodosius II, was in at least twenty
1 Oration 18. 178.
316
—— .-
INTRODUCTION
Books. But for Cyril’s quotations we should have
a very vague idea of Julian’s treatise, and as it
is we are compelled to see it through the eyes of a
hostile apologist. Cyril’s own comments, and _ his
summaries of portions of the treatise have been
omitted from the following translation,! but the
substance of the summaries has been given in the
footnotes. The marginal numbers in the Greek
text correspond with the pages of Spanheim’s (1696)
edition of Cyril’s polemic Pro Christiana Religione,
from which Neumann extracted and strung together
Cyril’s quotations of Julian. There is, therefore, an
occasional lack of connection in Julian’s arguments,
taken apart from their context in Cyril’s treatise.
1 For a full discussion of the work of Cyril and the other
Christian apologists who attempted to refute Julian, and for
an explanation of Neumann’s method of reconstruction, the
reader is referred to the Latin ar omeeneen to Neumann’s
Edition of Julian’s polemic.
The numerous passages or expressions in this treatise
that can be paralleled in Julian’s other works have been
collected by Asmus in his Concordance, Julian’s Galilder-
schrift, 1904,
39 A
39 B
41 KE
42 A
42 i
IOTAIANOT ATTOKPATOPOS KATA
PTAAIAAION AOTOS A!
Καλῶς ἔχειν ἔμοιγε φαίνεται τὰς αἰτίας ἐκθέσ-
θαι πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις, ὑφ᾽ ὧν ἐπείσθην ὅτι τῶν
Γαλιλαίων ἡ σκευωρία πλάσμα ἐστὶν ἀνθρώπων
ὑπὸ κακουργίας συντεθέν. ἔχουσα μὲν οὐδὲν θεῖον,
ἀποχρησαμένη δὲ τῷ φιλομύθῳ καὶ παιδαριώδει
καὶ ἀνοήτῳ τῆς ψυχῆς μορίῳ, τὴν τερατολογίαν
εἰς πίστιν ἤγαγεν ἀληθείας.
Μέλλων δὲ ὑπὲρ τῶν πρώτων λεγομένων
δογμάτων ἁπάντων ποιεῖσθαι τὸν λόγον, ἐκεῖνο
βούλομαι πρῶτον εἰπεῖν, ὅτε χρὴ τοὺς ἐντυγχά-
νοντας, εἴπερ ἀντιλέγειν ἐθέλοιεν, ὥσπερ ἐν δικα-
στηρίῳ μηδὲν ἔξωθεν πολυπραγμονεῖν μηδέ, τὸ
λεγόμενον, ἀντικατηγορεῖν, ἕως ἂν ὑπὲρ τῶν Tap
αὐτοῖς 5 ἀπολογήσωνται. ἄμεινον μὲν γὰρ οὕτω,
καὶ σαφέστερον ἰδίαν μὲν ἐνστήσασθαι πραγμα-
τείαν, ὅταν τι τῶν παρ᾽ ἡμῖν εὐθύνειν θέλωσιν, ἐν
οἷς δὲ πρὸς τὰς παρ᾽ ἡμῶν εὐθύνας ἀπολογοῦνται,
μηδὲν ἀντικατηγορεῖν.
Μικρὸν δὲ ἀναλαβεῖν ἄξιον, ὅθεν ἡμῖν ἥκει καὶ
ὅπως ἔννοια θεοῦ τὸ πρῶτον, εἶτα παραθεῖναι τὰ
παρὰ τοῖς “Ελλησι καὶ παρὰ τοῖς Ἑβραίοις ὑπὲρ
* The marginal numbers in Neumann’s text represent the
paging of the edition of Cyril by Spanheim, 1696, as rearranged
318
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
Book I
Ir is, I think, expedient to set forth to all man-
kind the reasons by which I was convinced that
the fabrication of the Galilaeans is a fiction of men
composed by wickedness. Though it has in it nothing
divine, by making full use of that part of the soul
which loves fable and is childish and foolish, it has
induced men to believe that the monstrous tale is
truth. Now since | intend to treat of all their first
dogmas, as they call them, I wish to say in the first
place that if my readers desire to try to refute me
they must proceed as if they were in a court of law
and not drag in irrelevant matter, or, as the saying is,
bring counter-charges until they have defended their
own views. For thus it will be better and clearer
if, when they wish to censure any views of mine,
they undertake that as a separate task, but when
they are defending themselves against my censure,
they bring no counter-charges.
It is worth while to recall in a few words whence
and how we first arrived at a conception of God;
next to compare what is said about the divine
among the Hellenes and Hebrews; and finally
by Neumann. In the Introduction to his edition he defends
his rearrangement of the text of Aubert 1638, given by
Spanheim.
2 τῶν παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς Neumann; MS. τῶν πρώτων Gollwitzer
would retain, taking ὑπὲρ τῶν πρώτων = πρὸς τὰ πρῶτα.
319
43 A
43 Β
52C
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
τοῦ θείου λεγόμενα, καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο ἐπανερέσθαι
τοὺς οὔτε “Ελληνας οὔτε ᾿Ἰουδαίους, ἀλλὰ τῆς
Γαλιλαίων ὄντας αἱρέσεως, ἀνθ᾽ ὅτου πρὸ τῶν
ἡμετέρων εἵλοντο τὰ παρ᾽ ἐκείνοις, καὶ ἐπὶ τούτῳ,
τί δή ποτε μηδ᾽ ἐκείνοις ἐμμένουσιν, ἀλλὰ κἀκεί-
νων ἀποστάντες ἰδίαν ὁδὸν ἐτράποντο. ὁμολο-
γήσαντες μὲν οὐδὲν τῶν καλῶν οὐδὲ τῶν σπουδαίων
οὔτε τῶν Tap ἡμῖν τοῖς “ἔλλησιν οὔτε τῶν παρὰ
τοῖς ἀπὸ Μωυσέως ᾿Εβραίοις, ἀπ᾽ ἀμφοῖν δὲ τὰς
παραπεπηγυίας τούτοις τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ὥσπερ τινὰς
Κῆρας δρεπόμενοι, τὴν ἀθεότητα μὲν ἐκ τῆς
᾿Ιουδαϊκῆς ῥᾳδιουργίας, φαῦλον δὲ καὶ ἐπισεσυρ-
μένον βίον ἐκ τῆς παρ᾽ ἡμῖν ῥᾳθυμίας καὶ χυδαιό-
τητος, τοῦτο τὴν ἀρίστην θεοσέβειαν ἠθέλησαν
ὀνομάζεσθαι.
Ὅτι δὲ οὐ διδακτόν, ἀλλὰ φύσει τὸ εἰδέναι
θεὸν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ὑπάρχει, τεκμήριον ἡμῖν
ἔστω πρῶτον ἡ κοινὴ πάντων ἀνθρώπων ἰδίᾳ καὶ
δημοσίᾳ καὶ κατ᾽ ἄνδρα καὶ ἔθνη περὶ τὸ θεῖον
προθυμία. “ἅπαντες γὰρ ἀδιδάκτως θεῖόν τι πεπι-
στεύκαμεν, ὑπὲρ οὗ τὸ μὲν ἀκριβὲς οὔτε πᾶσι ῥάδιον
γινώσκειν οὔτε τοῖς ἐγνωκόσιν εἰπεῖν εἰς πάντας
δυνατόν εὐ 6 ταύτῃ δὴ τῇ κοινῇ πάντων ἀνθρώπων
ἐννοίᾳ πρόσεστι καὶ ἄλλη. πάντες γὰρ οὐρανῷ
καὶ τοῖς ἐν αὐτῷ φαινομένοις θεοῖς οὕτω δή τι
φυσικῶς προσηρτήμεθα, ὡς καὶ εἴ τις ἄλλον
ὑπέλαβε παρ᾽ αὐτοὺς τὸν θεόν, οἰκητήριον αὐτῷ
πάντως τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀπένειμεν, οὐκ ἀποστήσας
αὐτὸν τῆς γῆς, ἀλλ᾽ οἷον ὡς εἰς τιμιώτερον τοῦ
1 Klimek would delete ‘EBpato:s as a gloss.
1 Some words are lost.
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
to enquire of those who are neither Hellenes nor
Jews, but belong to the sect of the Galilaeans, why
they preferred the belief of the Jews to ours; and
what, further, can be the reason why they do not even
adhere to the Jewish beliefs but have abandoned
them also and followed a way of theirown. For they
have not accepted a single admirable or important
doctrine of those that are held either by us Hellenes
or by the Hebrews who derived them from Moses ;
but from both religions they have gathered what has
been engrafted like powers of evil, as it were, on
these nations—atheism from the Jewish levity,
and a sordid and slovenly way of living from our
indolence and vulgarity; and they desire that
this should be called the noblest worship of the
gods.
Now that the human race possesses its knowledge
of God by nature and not from teaching is proved
to us first of all by the universal yearning for the
divine that is in all men whether private persons
or communities, whether considered as individuals
orasraces. Forall of us, without being taught, have
attained to a belief in some sort of divinity, though
it is not easy for all men to know the precise
truth about it, nor is it possible for those who do
know it to tell it toall men... .t Surely, besides
this conception which is common to all men, there
is another also. I mean that we are all by nature
so closely dependent on the heavens and the gods
that are visible therein, that even if any man con-
ceives of another god besides these, he in every
case assigns to him the heavens as his dwelling-
place; not that he thereby separates him from the
earth, but he so to speak establishes the King of
321
VOL. I | Y
69 B
69 C
‘69D
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
παντὸς ἐκεῖνο τὸν βασιλέα καθίσας τῶν ὅλων
ἐφορᾶν ἐκεῖθεν ὑπολαμβάνων τὰ τῇδε.
Τί δεῖ pow? καλεῖν Ἕλληνας, καὶ Ἑβραίους
ἐνταῦθα μάρτυρας ; ; οὐδεὶς ἔστιν, ὃς οὐκ ἀνατείνει
μὲν εἰς οὐρανὸν τὰς χεῖρας εὐχόμενος, ὀμνύων δὲ
θεὸν ἤτοι θεούς, ἔ ἔννοιαν ὅλως τοῦ θείου λαμβάνων,
ἐκεῖσε φέρεται. καὶ τοῦτο οὐκ ἀπεικότως ἔπαθον.
ὁρῶντες γὰρ οὔτε πληθυνόμενον ἢ οὔτε ἐλαττού-
μενόν τι τῶν περὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν οὔτε τρεπόμενον
οὔτε πάθος ὑπομένον τι τῶν ἀτάκτων, ἀλλ᾽ ἐναρ-
μόνιον μὲν αὐτοῦ τὴν κίνησιν, ἐμμελῆ δὲ τὴν τάξιν,
ὡρισμένους δὲ φωτισμοὺς σελήνης, ἡλίου δὲ ἀνα-
τολὰς καὶ δύσεις ὡρισμένας ἐν ὡρισμένοις ἀεὶ
καιροῖς, εἰκότως θεὸν καὶ θεοῦ θρόνον ὑπέλαβον.
τὸ γὰρ τοιοῦτον, ἅτε μηδεμιᾷ προσθήκῃ. πληθυνό-
μενον μηδὲ ἐλαττούμενον ἀφαιρέσει, τῆς τε KAT
ἀλλοίωσιν καὶ τροπὴν ἐκτὸς ἱστάμενον μεταβολῆς
πάσης καθαρεύει φθορᾶς καὶ γενέσεως, ἀθάνατον
δὲ ὃν φύσει καὶ ἀνώλεθρον παντοίας ἐστὶ καθαρὸν
κηλῖδος" ἀΐδιον δὲ καὶ ἀεικίνητον, ὡς ὁρῶμεν, ἤτοι
παρὰ ψυχῆς κρείττονος καὶ θειοτέρας ἐ ἐνοικούσης
αὐτῷ, ὥσπερ, οἶμαι, τὰ ἡμέτερα σώματα παρὰ
τῆς ἐν ἡμῖν ψυχῆς, φέρεται κύκλῳ περὶ τὸν μέγαν
δημιουργόν, ἢ πρὸς αὐτοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ τὴν κίνησιν
παραδεξάμενον τὸν ἄπειρον ἐξελίττει κύκλον ἀπαύ-
στῳ καὶ αἰωνίῳ φορᾷ.
1 Gollwitzer deletes μοι.
2 οὔτε πληθυνόμενον Klimek adds, cf. 69 C.
1 Cf. Oration 6. 1830, Vol. 2.
322
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
the All in the heavens! as in the most honourable
place of all, and conceives of him as overseeing from
there the affairs of this world.
What need have I tosummon Hellenes and Hebrews
as witnesses of this? ‘There exists no man who does
not stretch out his hands towards the heavens when
he prays; and whether he swears by one god or
several, if he has any notion at all of the divine, he
turns heavenward. And it was very natural that
men should feel thus. For since they observed that
in what concerns the heavenly bodies there is no
increase or diminution or mutability, and that they
do not suffer any unregulated influence, but their
movement is harmonious and their arrangement in
concert; and that the illuminations of the moon are
regulated, and that the risings and settings of the
sun are regularly defined, and always at regularly
defined seasons, they naturally conceived that the
heaven is a god and the throne of a god.?_ Fora
being of that sort, since it is not subject to increase
by addition, or to diminution by subtraction, and is
stationed beyond all change due to alteration and
mutability, is free from decay and generation, and
inasmuch as it is immortal by nature and indestruc-
tible, it is pure from every sort of stain. Eternal
and ever in movement, as we see, it travels in a
circuit about the great Creator, whether it be im-
pelled by a nobler and more divine soul that dwells
therein, just as, I mean, our bodies are by the soul
in us, or having received its motion from God Him-
self, it wheels in its boundless circuit, in an unceasing
and eternal career,
2 Cyril 70a ridicules Julian for confusing here a god with
a throne ; but καὶ can be interpreted ‘‘ or,”
323
Υ 2
44 A
44 B
75 A
86 A
89 A
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
Οὐκοῦν ExXrnves μὲν τοὺς μύθους ἔπλασαν ὑπὲρ
τῶν θεῶν ἀπίστους καὶ τερατώδεις. καταπιεῖν
γὰρ ἔφασαν τὸν Κρόνον τοὺς παῖδας * εἶτ᾽ αὖθις
ἐμέσαι. καὶ γάμους ἤδη παρανόμους" μητρὶ γὰρ
ὁ Ζεὺς ἐμίχθη καὶ παιδοποιησάμενος ἐξ αὐτῆς
ἔγημε μὲν αὐτὸς τὴν αὑτοῦ θυγατέρα, μᾶλλον δὲ
οὐδὲ ἔ ἔγημεν, ἀλλὰ μιχθεὶς ἁπλῶς ἄλλῳ παραδέ-
δωκεν 3 αὐτήν. εἶτα οἱ Διονύσου σπαραγμοὺὶ καὶ
μελῶν κολλήσεις. τοιαῦτα οἱ μῦθοι τῶν “Ελλήνων
φασίν. τούτοις παράβαλλε τὴν ᾿Ιουδαϊκὴν διδασ-
καλίαν, καὶ τὸν φυτευόμενον ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ παρά-
δεισον καὶ τὸν ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ πλαττόμενον ᾿Αδάμ, εἶτα
τὴν γινομένην αὐτῷ γυναῖκα. λέγει γὰρ ὁ θεός
as Οὐ καλὸν εἶναι τὸν ἄνθρωπον μόνον" ποιήσωμεν
αὐτῷ βοηθὸν κατ᾽ αὐτόν,᾽ πρὸς οὐδὲν μὲν αὐτῷ
τῶν ὅχων βοηθήσασαν, ἐξαπατήσασαν δὲ καὶ
γενομένην παραίτιον αὐτῷ τε ἐκείνῳ καὶ ἑαυτῇ
τοῦ πεσεῖν ἔξω τῆς τοῦ παραδείσου τρυφῆς.
Ταῦτα γάρ ἐστι μυθώδη παντελῶς. ἐπεὶ πῶς
εὔλογον ἀγνοεῖν τὸν θεόν, OTL τὸ γινόμενον ὑπ᾽
αὐτοῦ πρὸς βοήθειαν οὐ πρὸς καλοῦ μᾶλλον, ἀλλὰ
πρὸς κακοῦ τῷ λαβόντι γενήσεται ; ; τὸν γὰρ ὄφιν
τὸν διαλεγόμενον πρὸς τὴν Εὔαν ποδαπῇ τινι
χρύσεα φήσομεν διαλέκτῳ ; dpa ἀνθρωπείᾳ; καὶ
ιαφέρει τῶν παρὰ τοῖς “Ἕλλησι πεπλασμένων
μύθων τὰ τοιαῦτα ; τὸ δὲ καὶ τὸν θεὸν a ἀπαγορεύειν
τὴν διάγνωσιν καλοῦ τε καὶ , φαύλου τοῖς ὑπ᾽
αὐτοῦ πλασθεῖσιν ἀνθρώποις ἄρ᾽ οὐχ ὑπερβολὴν
1 Before εἶτ᾽ Neumann adds καί, but this is not necessary.
* παρέδωκεν Klimek.
1 Persephone, 2 Hades,
324
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
Now it is true that the Hellenes invented their
myths about the gods, incredible and monstrous
stories. For they said that Kronos swallowed his
children and then vomited them forth; and they
even told of lawless unions, how Zeus had inter-
course with his mother, and after having a child by
her, married his own daughter,! or rather did not
even marry her, but simply had intercourse, with
her and then handed her over to another.? (Then
@ sort of ‘cite described in the καῦτα of the
Hellenes. Compare with them the Jewish doctrine,
how the garden was planted by God and Adam was
fashioned by Him, and next, for Adam, woman
came to be. For God said, “It is not good that
the man should be alone. Let us make him an
help meet like him.” * Yet so far was she from help-
ing him at all that she deceived him, and was in
part the cause of his and her own fall from their
life of ease in the garden.
This is wholly fabulous. For is it probable
that God did not know that the being he was
creating as a help meet would prove to be not
so much a blessing as a misfortune to him who
received her? Again, what sort of language are
we to say that the serpent used when he talked
with Eve? Was it the language of human beings?
And in what do such legends as these differ from
the myths that were invented by the Hellenes?
Moreover, is it not excessively strange that God
should deny to the human beings whom he had
fashioned the power to distinguish between good
3 Genesis 2. 18.
325
89 B
93D
93 HE
94 A
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
7 , Ν , \ KX 5 / / n
ἀτοπίας ἔχει; τί yap ἂν ἠλιθιώτερον γένοιτο τοῦ
Ν ,
μὴ δυναμένου διαγινώσκειν καλὸν καὶ πονηρόν ;
δῇ / “ \ \ > 7 λέ δὲ \
ῆλον yap, ὅτι τὰ μὲν ov φεύξεται, λέγω ὃὲ τὰ
if \ \ 3 , / \ \ /
κακά, TH δὲ ov μεταδιώξει, λέγω δὲ τὰ καλά.
/ / / > “ e ἈΝ
κεφάλαιον δέ, φρονήσεως ἀπηγόρευσεν ὁ θεὸς
ἀνθρώπῳ γεύσασθαι, ἧς οὐδὲν ἂν εἴη τιμιώτερον
‘ n fa) n /
ἀνθρώπῳ. ὅτι yap ἡ τοῦ καλοῦ Kal τοῦ χείρονος
a , ’
διάγνωσις οἰκεῖόν ἐστιν ἔργον φρονήσεως, πρόδηλον
td a
ἐστί που Kal τοῖς ἀνοήτοις" ὥστε τὸν ὄφιν εὐερ-
/ na 2 > ΕΝ," al a > /
γέτην μᾶλλον, ἀλλ᾽ οὐχὶ λυμεῶνα τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης
γενέσεως εἶναι. ἐπὶ τούτοις ὁ θεὸς δεῖ λέγεσθαι "
/ n
βάσκανος. ἐπειδὴ yap εἶδε μετασχόντα THs φρο-
νήσεως τὸν ἄνθρωπον, ἵνα μή, φησί, γεύσηται τοῦ
ξύλου τῆς ζωῆς, ἐξέβαλεν αὐτὸν τοῦ παραδείσου
διαρρήδην εἰπών" “Ἰδού, Adam γέγονεν ὡς εἷς ἐξ
lal n ΄ / fal
ἡμῶν τοῦ γινώσκειν καλὸν Kal πονηρόν. καὶ νῦν
/ nm aA vA
μήποτε ἐκτείνῃ τὴν χεῖρα Kal λάβῃ ἀπὸ τοῦ ξύλου
an a ‘ \ wn 3»
τῆς ζωῆς καὶ φάγῃ καὶ ζήσεται εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα.
, a /
τούτων τοίνυν ἕκαστον εἰ μὴ μῦθος ἔχων θεωρίαν
> 4 3 ο a /
ἀπόρρητον εἴη, ὅπερ ἐγὼ νενόμικα, πολλῆς γέ-
A “ / \
μουσιν οἱ λόγοι περὶ τοῦ θεοῦ βλασφημίας. TO
\ an ᾽ὔ
γὰρ ἀγνοῆσαι μέν, ὡς ἡ γινομένη βοηθὸς αἰτία
τοῦ πτώματος ἔσται καὶ τὸ ἀπαγορεῦσαι καλοῦ
\ n an \
καὶ πονηροῦ γνῶσιν, ὃ μόνον ἔοικε συνέχειν TOV
n \ A
νοῦν τὸν ἀνθρώπινον, Kal πρόσετι TO ζηλοτυπῆσαι,
1 αὐτῷ Neumann, ἀνθρώπῳ MSS. ; Klimek would delete
ἀνθρώπῳ ; Gollwitzer rightly retains as characteristic Julianic
tautology.
3 δεῖ λέγεσθαι Neumann ; λέγοιτ᾽ ἂν Klimek ; λέγεται MSS. ;
Gollwitzer deletes ἐπί.
3 Gollwitzer adds λαβεῖν ; Asmus ἀναλαβεῖν, cf. Vol. 2, 265A.
1 Genesis 3. 22.
326
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
and evil? What could be more foolish than a
being unable to distinguish good from bad? For
it is evident that he would not avoid the latter, I
mean things evil, nor would he strive after the
former, I mean things good. And, in short, God
refused to let man taste of wisdom, than which there
could be nothing of more value for man. For that
the power to distinguish between good and less good
is the property of wisdom is evident surely even to
the witless; so that the serpent was a benefactor
rather than a destroyer of the human race. Further-
more, their God must be called envious. For when
he saw that man had attained to a share of wisdom,
that he might not, God said, taste of the tree of
life, he cast him out of the garden, saying in so
many words, “ Behold, Adam has become as one of
us, because he knows good from bad; and now let
him not put forth his hand and take also of the tree
of life and eat and thus live forever.’ Accord-
ingly, unless every one of these legends is a myth
that involves some secret interpretation, as I indeed
believe,” they are filled with many blasphemous
sayings about God. For in the first place to be
ignorant that she who was created as a help meet
would be the cause of the fall; secondly to refuse
the knowledge of good and bad, which knowledge
alone seems to give coherence to the mind of man ;
and lastly to be jealous lest man should take of the
2 For Julian’s belief that myths need allegorical interpre-
tation cf. Oration 5. 169-170, Vol. 1, p. 475, note; see also
Caesars 306C, Oration 7. 2060, 220, for myths as emblematic
of the truth. This is the regular method of Neo-Platonic
writers, such as Sallustius, in dealing with the unpleasant or
incongruous elements in Greek mythology. -
327
96 C
96 D
96 E
49 A
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
μὴ τοῦ ξύλου τῆς ζωῆς μεταλαβὼν ἄνθρωπος
ἀθάνατος ἐ ἐκ θνητοῦ γένηται, φθονεροῦ καὶ βασκά-
νου λίαν ἐστίν.
Ὑπὲρ δὲ ὧν ἐκεῖνοί τε ἀληθῶς δοξάξουσιν ἡμῖν
τε ἐξ ἀ ἀρχῆς οἱ πατέρες παρέδοσαν, ὁ ὁ “μὲν ἡμέτερος
ἔχει λόγος ὡδὶ 1 τὸν προσεχῆ τοῦ κόσμου τούτου
δημιουργόν... ... ὑπὲρ γὰρ θεῶν" τῶν ἀνωτέρω τούτου
Μωυσῆς μὲν εἴρηκεν οὐδὲν ὅλως, ὅς γε οὐδὲ ὑπὲρ
τῆς τῶν ἀγγέλων ἐτόλμησέ τί φύσεως" ἀλλ᾽ ὅτι
μὲν λειτουργοῦσι τῷ θεῷ πολλαχῶς καὶ πολλάκις
εἶπεν, εἴτε δὲ γεγονότες, εἴτε ἀγένητοι, εἴτε ὑπ᾽
ἄλλου μὲν γεγονότες, ἄλλῳ δὲ λειτουργεῖν τεταγ-
μένοι, εἴτε ἄλλως πως, οὐδαμόθεν διώρισται.
περὶ δὲ οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς καὶ τῶν ἐν αὐτῇ τίνα
τρύπον διεκοσμήθη διέξεισι. καὶ τὰ μέν φησι
κελεῦσαι τὸν θεὸν γενέσθαι, & ὥσπερ φῶς καὶ στε-
ρέωμα, τὰ δὲ ποιῆσαι, ὥσπερ οὐρανὸν καὶ γῆν,
ἥλιόν τε καὶ σελήνην, τὰ δὲ ὄντα, κρυπτόμενα δὲ
τέως, διακρῖναι, “καθάπερ ὕδωρ, οἶμαι, καὶ τὴν
ξηράν. πρὸς τούτοις δὲ οὐδὲ περὴ γενέσεως ἢ
περὶ ποιήσεως τοῦ πνεύματος εἰπεῖν ἐτόλμησεν,
ἀλλὰ μόνον “Καὶ πνεῦμα θεοῦ ἐπεφέρετο ἐπάνω
τοῦ ὕδατος " - πότερον δὲ ἀγένητόν ἐστιν ἢ γέγονεν,
οὐδὲν διασαφεῖ.
᾿Ενταῦθα παραβάλωμεν, εἰ βούλεσθε, τὴν
Πλάτωνος φωνήν. τί τοίνυν οὗτος ὑπὲρ τοῦ
Spneniens® λέγει Kal τίνας περιτίθησιν αὐτῷ
ὡδὶ Asmus restores from MSS. ; οὐδὲ Neumann.
2 Asmus deletes as superfluous θεῶν added by Neumann.
3 δέ, τέως Neumann; δὲ τέως, Asmus.
+ The pagan theory is missing and also part of the Jewish,
according to Asmus.
328
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
tree of life and from mortal become immortal,—
this is to be grudging and envious overmuch.
Next to consider the views that are correctly held
by the Jews, and also those that our fathers handed
down to us from the beginning. Our account has
in it the immediate creator of this universe, as the
following shows. . . .1 Moses indeed has said no-
thing whatsoever about the gods who are superior
to this creator, nay, he has not even ventured to
say anything about the nature of the angels. But
that they serve God he has asserted in many ways
and often; but whether they were generated or un-
generated, or whether they were generated by one
god and appointed to serve another, or in some other
way, he has nowhere said definitely. But he de-
scribes fully in what manner the heavens and the
earth and all that therein is were set in order. In
part, he says, God ordered them to be, such as light
and the firmament, and in part, he says, God made
them, such as the heavens and the earth, the sun
and moon, and that all things which already existed
but were hidden away for the time being, he
separated, such as water, 1 mean, and dry land.
But apart from these he did not venture to say a
word about the generation or the making of the
Spirit, but only this, “ And the Spirit of God moved
upon the face of the waters.” But whether that
spirit was ungenerated or had been generated he
does not make at all clear.
Now, if you please, we will compare the utter-
ance of Plato.2 Observe then what he says about
the creator, and what words he makes him speak
2 In his Letter toa Priest 292, Vol. 2, Julian contrasts the
Platonic account of the Creation with the Mosaic.
329
49 B
49 C
49 D
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
\ a a
φωνὰς ἐν τῇ κοσμογενείᾳ σκόπησον, ἵνα τὴν
Πλάτωνος καὶ Μωυσέως κοσμογένειαν ἀντιπαρα-
βάλωμεν ἀλλήλαις. οὕτω γὰρ ἂν φανείη, τίς ὁ
/ \ , ” ἴω ἴω a ᾿ς ὁ es n
κρείττων Kal τίς ἄξιος τοῦ θεοῦ μᾶλλον, ap ὁ τοῖς
εἰδώλοις λελατρευκὼς Πλάτων ἢ περὶ οὗ φησιν ἡ
/ Ὁ« / \ , ς Ν b] /
γραφή, OTL στόμα κατὰ στόμα ὁ θεὸς ἐλάλησεν
A an , \
αὐτῷ. “’Ev ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ
τὴν γῆν. ἡ δὲ γῆ ἣν ἀόρατος καὶ ἀκατασκεύαστος,
καὶ σκότος ἐπάνω τῆς ἀβύσσου, καὶ πνεῦμα θεοῦ
7, n 5 ς
ἐπεφέρετο ἐπάνω τοῦ ὕδατος. καὶ εἶπεν ὁ θεός
/ a is aes a Ἂν ᾧ ς
Γενηθήτω φῶς, καὶ ἐγένετο φῶς. καὶ εἶδεν ὁ
\ \ a ῳ , \ , ς \
θεὸς TO φῶς, ὅτι καλόν. Kal διεχώρισεν ὁ θεὸς
ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ φωτὸς καὶ ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ σκότους.
ἼΔΑΣ / e © \ n ς / \ \ /
καὶ ἐκάλεσεν ὁ θεὸς TO φῶς ἡμέραν Kal TO σκότος
\ /
ἐκάλεσε νύκτα. καὶ ἐγένετο ἑσπέρα καὶ ἐγένετο
/
πρωΐ, ἡμέρα μία. καὶ εἶπεν ὁ θεός: Τενηθήτω
ε
στερέωμα ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ ὕδατος. καὶ ἐκάλεσεν ὁ
«ς
θεὸς τὸ στερέωμα οὐρανόν. καὶ εἶπεν ὁ θεός"
¢ n lal >
Συναχθήτω τὸ ὕδωρ τὸ ὑποκάτω τοῦ οὐρανοῦ εἰς
συναγωγὴν μίαν καὶ ὀφθήτω ἡ ξηρά. καὶ ἐγένετο
“ \ 93 ς 7 ͵ὔ e an
οὕτως. Kal εἶπεν ὁ θεός: Βλαστησάτω ἡ γῆ Bo-
«
τάνην χόρτου καὶ ξύλον κάρπιμον. καὶ εἶπεν ὁ
/ a a ,
Geos’ Τενηθήτωσαν φωστῆρες ἐν τῷ στερεώματι
“ n a \ an n
τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, ἵνα wow eis φαῦσιν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς.
καὶ ἔθετο αὐτοὺς ὁ θεὸς ἐν τῷ στερεώματι τοῦ
a n a oF
οὐρανοῦ, ὥστε ἄρχειν THs ἡμέρας καὶ τῆς νυκτὸς.
Ἔν δὴ τούτοις Μωυσῆς οὔτε τὴν ἄβυσσον πε-
ol na a \ /
ποιῆσθαί φησιν ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ οὔτε TO σκότος
¢ a ? / \
οὔτε TO ὕδωρ' καίτοι χρῆν δήπουθεν εἰπόντα περὶ
330
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
at the time of the generation of the universe, in order
that we may compare Plato’s account of that gener-
ation with that of Moses. For in this way it will ap-
pear who was the nobler and who was more worthy
of intercourse with God, Plato who paid homage to
images, or he of whom the Scripture says that
God spake with him mouth to mouth. “In the
beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was invisible and without form, and
darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the
spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light; and there was
light. And God saw the light that it was good;
and God divided the light from the darkness.
And God called the light Day, and the darkness
he called Night. And the evening and the morn-
ing were the first day. And God said, Let there
be a firmament in the midst of the waters. And
God called the firmament Heaven. And God said,
Let the waters under the heaven be gathered
together unto one place, and let the dry land
appear; and it was so. And God said, Let the
earth bring forth grass for fodder, and the fruit
tree yielding fruit. And God said, Let there be
lights in the firmament of the heaven that they may
be for a light upon the earth. And God set them
in the firmament of the heaven to rule over the day
and over the night.” 2
In all this, you observe, Moses does not say that
the deep was created by God, or the darkness or
the waters. And yet, after saying concerning light
1 Numbers 12. 8: ‘*With him will I speak mouth to
mouth.”
2 Genesis 1-17, with certain omissions.
33!
49 αὶ
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
τοῦ φωτός, ὅτι προστάξαντος θεοῦ γέγονεν, εἰπεῖν
ἔτι καὶ περὶ τῆς νυκτὸς καὶ περὶ τῆς ἀβύσσου καὶ
περὶ τοῦ ὕδατος. ὁ δὲ οὐδὲν εἶπεν ὡς περὶ οὐ"
γεγονότων ὅλως, καίτοι πολλάκις ἐπιμνησθεὶς
αὐτῶν. πρὸς τούτοις οὔτε τῆς τῶν ἀγγέλων μέ-
μνηται γενέσεως ἢ ποιήσεως οὐδ᾽ ὅντινα τρόπον
παρήχθησαν, ἀλλὰ τῶν περὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν μόνον
καὶ περὶ τὴν γῆν σωμάτων,Σ ὡς εἶναι τὸν θεὸν
κατὰ τὸν Μωυσέα ἀσωμάτων μὲν οὐδενὸς ποιητήν,
ὕλης δὲ ὑποκειμένης κοσμήτορα. τὸ γὰρ “Ἢ δὲ
γῆ ἣν ἀόρατος καὶ ἀκατασκεύαστος᾽᾽ οὐδὲν ἕτερόν
ἐστιν ἢ τὴν μὲν ὑγρὰν καὶ ξηρὰν οὐσίαν ὕλην ποι-
οῦντος, κοσμήτορα δὲ αὐτῆς τὸν θεὸν εἰσάγοντος.
"O γε μὴν Πλάτων ἄκουε περὶ τοῦ κόσμου τί
φησιν. “ ὋὉ δὴ πᾶς οὐρανὸς ἢ κόσμος --ὴ καὶ ἄλλο,
ὅ τί ποτε ὀνομαζόμενος μάλιστα, ἂν δέχοιτο, τοῦτο
ἡμῖν ὠνομάσθω---πότερον ἧ ἦν ἀεί, γενέσεως ἀρχὴν
ἔχων οὐδεμίαν, ἢ ἢ γέγονεν, ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς TLVOS ἀρξά-
μενος ; γέγονεν: ὁρατὸς γὰρ ἅπτος τέ ἐστι καὶ
σῶμα ἔχων. πάντα δὲ τὰ τοιαῦτα αἰσθητά, τὰ
δὲ αἰσθητά, δόξῃ περιληπτὰ μετὰ αἰσθήσεως,
γιγνόμενα καὶ γεννητὰ ἐφάνη... οὕτως οὖν κατὰ
τὸν λόγον τὸν εἰκότα δεῖ λέγειν τόνδε τὸν κόσμον
ζῷον ἔμψυχον ἔννουν τε τῇ ἀληθείᾳ διὰ τὴν τοῦ
θεοῦ γενέσθαι πρόνοιαν."
"Ev δὲ ἑνὶ παραβάλωμεν μόνον" τίνα καὶ ποδα-
1 Klimek ὡς περὶ οὐ; Neumann ὡς περί.
2 Neumann σκηνωμάτων from JMMarcianus 123; σωμάτων
Wright from Marcianus 122
1 Timaeus 288, Ο.
33?
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
that God ordered it to be, and it was, surely he
ought to have gone on to speak of night also, and
the deep and the waters. But of them he says not
a word to imply that they were not already existing
at all, though he often mentions them, Further-
more, he does not mention the birth or creation of
the angels or in what manner they were brought
into being, but deals only with the heavenly and
earthly bodies. It follows that, according to Moses,
God is the creator of nothing that is incorporeal,
but is only the disposer of matter that already
existed. For the words, ‘‘And the earth was in-
visible and without form” can only mean that he
regards the wet and dry substance as the original
matter and that he introduces God as the disposer
of this matter.
Now on the other hand hear what Plato says
about the universe: “ Now the whole heaven or the
universe,—or whatever other name would be most
acceptable to it, so let it be named by us,—did it
exist eternally, having no beginning of generation,
or has it come into being starting from some begin-
ning? It has come into being. For it can be seen
and handled and has a body; and all such things
are the objects of sensation, and such objects of
sensation, being apprehensible by opinion with the
aid of sensation are things that came into being, as
we saw, and have been generated. . . .1 It follows,
therefore, according to the reasonable theory, that
we ought to affirm that this universe came into being
as a living creature possessing soul and intelligence
in very truth, both by the providence of God.” ? ~
Let us but compare them, point by point. What
3 Timaeus 30B; cf. Julian, Oration 5. 170p.
333
58 A
58 B
58 C
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
πὴν ποιεῖται δημηγορίαν ὁ ὁ θεὸς ὁ παρὰ Μωυσῇ
καὶ ποδαπὴν ὁ ὁ παρὰ Πλάτωνι ;
“ Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ θεός’ Ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ᾽
εἰκόνα ἡμετέραν καὶ καθ᾽ ὁμοίωσιν. καὶ ἀρχέ-
τωσαν τῶν ἰχθύων τῆς θαλάσσης καὶ τῶν πετει-
νῶν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ τῶν κτηνῶν καὶ πάσης τῆς
γῆς καὶ πάντων τῶν ἑρπετῶν TOV ἑρπόντων ἐπὶ
τῆς γῆς. καὶ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον, κατ
εἰκόνα θεοῦ ἐ ἐποίησεν αὐτόν: ἄρσεν καὶ θῆλυ ἐποί-
noev αὐτοὺς λέγων: Αὐξάνεσθε καὶ πληθύνεσθε
καὶ πληρώσατε THY γῆν καὶ κατακυριεύσατε αὖ-
τῆς. καὶ ἀρχέτωσαν τῶν ἰχθύων τῆς θαλάσσης
καὶ τῶν πετεινῶν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ πάντων τῶν
κτηνῶν καὶ πάσης τῆς γῆς.
"Axove δὴ οὗν καὶ τῆς ΠΠλατωνικῆς δημηγορίας,
ἣν τῷ τῶν ὅλων περιτίθησι δημιουργῷ.
" Θεοὶ θεῶν, ὧ ὧν ἐγὼ δημιουργὸς πατήρ τε ἔργων
ἄλυτα ἔσται ἐμοῦ γε ἐθέλοντος. τὸ μὲν δὴ δεθὲν
πᾶν λυτόν, τό γε μὴν καλῶς ἁρμοσθὲν καὶ ἔχον εὖ
λύειν ἐθέλειν κακοῦ. διὸ ἐπείπερ, γεγένησθε, οὐκ
ἀθάνατοι μέν ἐστε οὐδὲ ἄλυτοι τὸ πάμπαν, οὔτι
γε μὴν λυθήσεσθε οὐδὲ τεύξεσθε θανάτου μοίρας,
τῆς ἐμῆς βουλήσεως- μείξονος ἔτι “δεσμοῦ καὶ
κυριωτέρου λαχόντες ἐκείνων, οἷς ὅτε ἐγίνεσθε
ξυνεδεῖσθε. νῦν οὖν ὃ λέγω πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἐνδεικνύ-
μενος μάθετε. θνητὰ ἐ ἔτι γένη λοιπὰ τρία ἀγέν-
νητα, τούτων. δὲ μὴ γενομένων οὐρανὸς ἀτελὴς
ἔσται. τὰ γὰρ πάντα ἐν αὑτῷ γένη ζῴων οὐχ
ἕξει" ὑπ᾽ ἐμοῦ δὲ ταῦτα γενόμενα καὶ βίου μετά-
Genesis 26, 27. 28,
334
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
and what sort of speech does the god make in the
account of Moses, and what the god in the account
of Plato?
«“ And God said, Let us make man in our image,
and our likeness; and let them have dominion over
the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air,
and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and
over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
earth. So God created man, in the image of
God created he him; male and female created
he them, and said, Be fruitful and multiply and
replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
fowl of the air, and over all the cattle and over all
the earth.”
Now, I say, hear also the speech which Plato
puts in the mouth of the Artificer of the All.
“Gods of Gods! Those works whose artificer and
father I am will abide indissoluble, so long as it is my
will. Lo, ail that hath been fastened may be loosed,
yet to will to loose that which is harmonious and in
good case were the act of an evil being. Wherefore,
since ye have come into being, ye are not immortal
or indissoluble altogether, nevertheless ye shall by
no means be loosed or meet with the doom of death,
since ye have found in my will a bond more mighty
and more potent than those wherewith ye were
bound when ye came into being. Now therefore
hearken to the saying which I proclaim unto you:
Three kinds of mortal beings still remain unborn,
and unless these have birth the heaven will be
incomplete, For it will not have within itself all
the kinds of living things. Yet if these should
come into being and receive a share of life at
335
58 D
65 C
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
σχόντα θεοῖς ἰσάξοιτο ἄν. ἵν᾽ οὖν θνητά τε ἢ τό τε
πᾶν τόδε ὄντως ἅπαν ἢ, τρέπεσθε κατὰ φύσιν
ὑμεῖς ἐπὶ τὴν τῶν ζῴων δημιουργίαν, μιμούμενοι
τὴν ἐμὴν δύναμιν περὶ τὴν ὑμετέραν γένεσιν. καὶ
καθ᾽ ὅσον μὲν αὐτῶν ἀθανάτοις ὁμώνυμον εἶναι
προσήκει, θεῖον λεγόμενον ἡγεμονοῦν τε ἐν αὐτοῖς
τῶν ἀεὶ δίκῃ καὶ ὑμῖν ἐθελόντων ἕπεσθαι, σπείρας
καὶ ὑπαρξάμενος ἐγὼ παραδώσω. τὸ δὲ λοιπὸν
ὑμεῖς, ἀθανάτῳ θνητὸν προσυφαίνοντες ἀπεργά-
ζεσθε ζῴα καὶ γεννᾶτε τροφήν τε διδόντες αὐξάνετε
καὶ φθίνοντα πάλιν δέχεσθε."
"ANN apa μὴ τοῦτο ὄναρ ἐστὶν ἐννοήσοντες
αὐτὸ μαθέτε. θεοὺς ὀνομάζει ἸΪλάτων τοὺς ἐμ-
φανεῖς, ἥλιον καὶ σελήνην, ἄστρα καὶ οὐρανόν,
ἀλλ᾽ οὗτοι τῶν ἀφανῶν εἰσιν εἰκόνες" ὁ φαινόμενος
τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ἡμῶν ἥλιος τοῦ νοητοῦ καὶ μὴ
φαινομένου, καὶ πάλιν ἡ φαινομένη τοῖς ὀφθαλ-
μοῖς ἡμῶν σελήνη καὶ τῶν ἄστρων ἕκαστον εἰκόνες
εἰσὶ τῶν νοητῶν. ἐκείνους οὖν τοὺς νοητοὺς καὶ
ἀφανεῖς θεοὺς ἐνυπάρχοντας καὶ συνυπάρχοντας
καὶ ἐξ αὐτοῦ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ γεννηθέντας καὶ
προελθόντας ὁ ὁ Πλάτων οἶδεν. εἰκότως οὖν φησιν
ὁ δημιουργὸς ὁ παρ᾽ αὐτῷ “θεοί, πρὸς τοὺς
ἀφανεῖς λέγων, “θεῶν, τῶν ἐμφανῶν δηλονότι.
κοινὸς δὲ ἀμφοτέρων δημιουργὸς οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ
τεχνησάμενος οὐρανὸν καὶ γῆν καὶ θάλασσαν καὶ
1 Timaeus 414,B,Cc. Julian may have been quoting from
memory, as there are omissions and slight variations from
our text of the Timaeus.
2 Cf. Julian, Vol. 1, Oration 4. 149A, 156D.
* Julian’s Fourth Oration, Vol. 1. is an exposition of this
theory held by the late Neo-Platonists; in the present
treatise he does not, as in the Fourth and Fifth Orations,
336
AGAINST THE ‘GALILAEANS
my hands they would become equal to gods.
Therefore in order that they may be mortal, and
that this All may be All in very truth, turn ye
according to your nature to the contriving of living
things, imitating my power even as 1 showed it in
generating you. And such part of them as is fitted
to receive the same name as the immortals, which
is called divine and the power in them that governs
all who are willing ever to follow justice and you,
this part I, having sowed it and originated the
same, will deliver to you. For the rest, do you,
weaving the mortal with the immortal, contrive living
beings and bring them to birth; then by giving
them sustenance increase them, and when they
perish receive them back again.” +
But since ye are about to consider whether this
is only a dream, do ye learn the meaning thereof.
Plato gives the name gods to those that are visible,
the sun and moon, the stars and the heavens, but
tlieéséare only the. likenesses of the invisible gods.
The sun which is visible to our eyes is the likeness
of the intelligible and invisible sun,? and again the
moon which is visible to our eyes and every one of
the stars are likenesses of the intelligible. Accord-
ingly Plato knows of those intelligible and invisible
gods which are immanent in and coexist with the
creator himself and were begotten and proceeded
from him. Naturally, therefore, the creator in Plato's
account says “gods” when he is addressing the
invisible beings, and ‘of gods,” meaning by this,
evidently, the visible gods. And the common creator
of both these is he who fashioned the heavens and
distinguish the intelligible (νοητοῦ gods from the intellectual
(voepol).
337
VOL. III, Z
66 A
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
ἄστρα καὶ γεννήσας ἐν τοῖς νοητοῖς τὰ τούτων
ἀρχέτυπα.
Σκόπει. οὖν," ὅτε καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ τούτοις καλῶς.
s “ΔΛείπει " γάρ φησι “ τρία θνητὰ γένη, ᾿ δηλονότι
τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων καὶ τὸ τῶν ζῴων καὶ τὸ τῶν
φυτῶν" τούτων γὰρ ἕκαστον ἰδίοις ὥ ὥρισται λόγοις.
Bi μὲν oop’ ᾿ φησι “ καὶ τούτων ἕκαστον ὑπ᾽ ἐμοῦ
γένοιτο, παντάπασιν ἀναγκαῖον ἀθάνατον αὐτὸ
γενέσθαι." καὶ γὰρ τοῖς νοητοῖς θεοῖς οὐδὲν ἄλλο
τῆς ἀθανασίας αἴτιον καὶ τῷ φαινομένῳ κόσμῳ ἢ
τὸ ὑπὸ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ γενέσθαι. ὅτι οὖν φησιν
He Ὅπόσον ἐ ἐστὶν ἀθάνατον, ἀναγκαῖόν ἐ ἐστι τούτοις
παρὰ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ δεδόσθαι," τοῦτο δέ ἐστιν ἡ
λογικὴ ψυχή. “TO δὲ λοιπόν" φησιν “ὑμεῖς
ἀθανάτῳ θνητὸν “προσυφαίνετε." δῆλον οὖν ὅτι
παραλαβόντες οἱ δημιουργικοὶ 3 θεοὶ παρὰ τοῦ
'σφῶν πατρὸς τὴν δημιουργικὴν “δύναμιν, ἀπεγέν-
νῆσαν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς τὰ θνητὰ τῶν ζῴων. εἶ γὰρ
μηδὲν ἔμελλε διαφέρειν οὐρανὸς ἀνθρώπου καὶ
ναὶ μὰ Δία θηρίου καὶ τελευταῖον αὐτῶν τῶν
ἑρπετῶν καὶ τῶν ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ νη ομένων ἰχθυ-
δίων, ἔδει τὸν δημιουργὸν & ἕνα καὶ τὸν αὐτὸν εἶναι
πάντων. εἰ δὲ πολὺ τὸ μέσον ἐστὶν ἀθανάτων καὶ
θνητῶν, οὐδεμιᾷ προσθήκῃ μεῖζον οὐδὲ ἀφαιρέσει
μειούμενον οὐδὲ μιγνύμενον πρὸς τὰ θνητὰ καὶ
ἐπίκηρα ὃ αἴτιον εἶναι προσήκει τούτων μὲν ἄλ-
λους, ἑτέρων δὲ ἑτέρους.
Οὐκοῦν ἐπειδήπερ οὐδὲ περὶ τοῦ προσεχοῦς τοῦ
1 οὖν ἔτι Klimek suggests.
2 δημιουργικοὶ Asmus ; δημιουργοὶ Neumann.
8 Asmus adds οὐδὲ μιγνύμενον retains πρὸς---ἐπίκηρα; Neu-
338
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
the earth and the sea and the stars, and begat in the
intelligible world the archetypes of these.
Observe then that what follows is well said also.
“ For,” he says, ‘‘ there remain three kinds of mortal
things,” meaning, evidently, human beings, animals
and plants; for each one of these has been defined
by its own peculiar definition. ‘ Now,” he goes on
to say, “if each one of these also should come to
exist by me, it would of necessity become immortal.”
And indeed, in the case of the intelligible gods and
the visible universe, no other cause for their im-
mortality exists than that they came into existence
by the act of the creator. When, therefore, he says,
“Such part of them as is immortal must needs be
given to these by the creator,” he means the reasoning
soul. “ For the rest,” he says, “do ye weave mortal
with immortal.” It is therefore clear that the
creative gods received from their father their creative
power and _ so begat on earth all living things that
are mortal. For if there were to be no difference
between the heavens and mankind and animals too,
by Zeus, and all the way down to the very tribe of
creeping things and the little fish that swim in the
sea, then there would have had to be one and the
same creator for them all. But if there is a great
gulf fixed between immortals and mortals, and this
cannot become greater by addition or less by sub-
traction, nor can it be mixed with what is mortal
and subject to fate, it follows that one set of gods
were the creative cause of mortals, and another of
immortals.
Accordingly, since Moses, as it seems, has failed
mann deletes rpbs—émixnpa; Gollwitzer μειούμενον ὥσπερ τὰ
θνητὰ καὶ ἐπίκηρα.
339
2 2
99 E
100 A
100 B
THE EMPEROR JULIAN .
a /
κόσμου τούτου δημιουργοῦ πάντα διειλεγμένος
a \ \ Lal
Μωυσῆς φαίνεται, τήν τε “EBpaiwy καὶ τὴν τῶν
a 4
ἡμετέρων πατέρων δόξαν ὑπὲρ ἐθνῶν τούτων ἀντι-
παραθῶμεν ἀλλήλαις.
nr \ “ , Ἁ
ὋὉ Μωυσῆς φησι τὸν τοῦ κόσμου δημιουργὸν
2 / Ἃς a, ¢ / ” /
ἐκλέξασθαι τὸ τῶν EBpaiwv ἔθνος καὶ προσέχειν
ἐκείνῳ μόνῳ καὶ ἐκείνου φροντίσαι καὶ δίδωσιν
’ an Ἀ " / 9 al ’ nan ..ν
αὐτῷ τὴν ἐπιμέλειαν αὐτοῦ μόνου. τῶν δὲ ἄλλων
> “ Ὁ A) ες,» e n “ ΣΟΥ
ἐθνῶν, ὅπως ἢ ὑφ᾽ οἵστισι διοικοῦνται θεοῖς, οὐδ
lal /, a
ἡντινοῦν μνείαν πεποίηται" πλὴν εἰ μή τις ἐκεῖνα
συγχωρήσειεν, ὅτι τὸν ἥλιον αὐτοῖς καὶ τὴν σελή-
νὴν ἀπένειμεν. ἀλλ᾽ ὑπὲρ μὲν τούτων καὶ μικρὸν
Ὁ“ ‘ “ a? \ ee , Ν
ὕστερον. πλὴν ὅτι τοῦ ᾿Ισραὴλ αὐτὸν μόνου θεὸν
\ n > / \ /, > /
καὶ τῆς “lovdaias καὶ τούτους ἐκλεκτούς φησιν
a a > a
αὐτός τε καὶ οἱ μετ᾽ ἐκεῖνον προφῆται καὶ ᾿Ιησοῦς
ὁ Ναζωραῖος ἐπιδείξω, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸν πάντας
πανταχοῦ τοὺς πώποτε γόητας καὶ ἀπατεῶνας
ὑπερβαλλόμενον Παῦλον. ἀκούετε δὲ τῶν λέξεων
> a A a \ a M / . «Ss δὲ
αὐτῶν, καὶ πρῶτον μὲν τῶν Μωυσέως v δὲ
a n a , U /
ἐρεῖς τῷ Papa: vids πρωτότοκός μου ᾿Ισραήλ.
3 / > , Ν 7
εἶπον δέ' ἐξαπόστειλον τὸν λαόν μου, iva pot
λατρεύσῃ. σὺ δὲ οὐκ ἐβούλου ἐξαποστεῖλαι
δ. δὲ, οἵ \ \ e ες \ ,
αὐτον. καὶ μικρὸν ὕστερον' “Καὶ λέγουσιν
> “ e \ a ¢ , / id ον
αὐτῷ" ὁ θεὸς τῶν “Εβραίων προσκέκληται ἡμᾶς.
‘ \ a
πορευσόμεθα οὖν eis THY ἔρημον ὁδὸν ἡμερῶν
a ¢ an n WY cree : \
τριῶν, ὅπως θύσωμεν κυρίῳ τῷ θεῷ ἡμῶν. Kal
Ἀ lal
μετ᾽ ὀλίγα πάλιν ὁμοίως" “Κύριος ὁ θεὸς τῶν
ς 3 ,
EBpaiwv ἐξαπέσταλκέ με πρὸς σὲ λέγων' ἐξαπό-
340
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
also to give a complete account of the immediate
creator of this universe, let us go on and set one
against another the opinion of the Hebrews and
that of our fathers about these nations.
Moses says that the creator of the universe chose
out the Hebrew nation, that to that nation alone did
he pay heed and cared for it, and he gives him
charge of it alone. But how and by what sort of
gods the other nations are governed he has said not
a word,—unless indeed one should concede that he
did assign to them the sun and moon.! However
of this I shall speak a little later. Now 1 will only
point out that Moses himself and the prophets who
came after him and Jesus the Nazarene, yes and
Paul also, who surpassed all the magicians and char-
latans of every place and every time, assert that he
is the God of Israel alone and of Judaea, and that
the Jews are his chosen people. Listen to their
own words, and first to the words of Moses: “ And
thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Israel is my son, my
firstborn. And I have said to thee, Let my people
go that they may serve me. But thou didst refuse
to let them go.”* And a little later, “And they
say unto him, The God of the Hebrews hath sum-
moned us; we will go therefore three days’ journey
into the desert, that we may sacrifice unto the Lord
our God.” And soon he speaks again in the same
way, “The Lord the God of the Hebrews hath sent
1 Deuteronomy 4.19: ** And lest . . . when thou seest the
sun and the moon and the stars, even all the host of heaven,
thou be drawn away and worship them, and serve them,
which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all the peoples
under the whole heaven.”
2 Exodus 4, 22. 3 Exodus 4. 23.
341
106 A
106 B
106 C
106 D
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
\ , ‘7 / 3 fal
στείλον τὸν λαύν pov, ἵνα λατρεύσωσιν ἐν TH
> / ” 5
ἐρήμῳ.
᾽ ᾽ Ὁ 3 ’ , 7 an
AN ὅτε μὲν ᾿Ιουδαίων μόνων ἐμέλησε TO
nA κ᾿ a \ a a ιν
θεῷ τὸ ἐξ ἀρχῆς καὶ κλῆρος αὐτοῦ γέγονεν οὗτος
᾽ὔ an 2
ἐξαίρετος, οὐ Μωυσῆς μόνον καὶ ᾿Ιησοῦς, ἀλλὰ
\ “Ὁ > \ , , ἴω »
καὶ Παῦλος εἰρηκὼς φαίνεται" καίτοι τοῦτο ἄξιον
lal /
θαυμάσαι περὶ τοῦ Παύλου. πρὸς yap τύχας,
Ψ a /
ὥσπερ χρῶτα οἱ πολύποδες πρὸς τὰς πέτρας,
> ͵ \ \ a , \ \ ’
ἀλλάττει τὰ περὶ θεοῦ δόγματα, ποτὲ μὲν lov-
/ a a 7] πε; ἡ:
δαίους μόνον τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ κληρονομίαν εἶναι
/
διατεινόμενος, πάλιν δὲ τοὺς “Ελληνας ἀναπείθων
n e \
αὑτῷ προστίθεσθαι, λέγων" “Μὴ ᾿Ιουδαίων ὁ θεὸς
n “ /
μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐθνῶν" val καὶ ἐθνῶν." δίκαιον
Qn [4] ,ὔ 9
οὖν ἐρέσθαι τὸν IladXov, εἰ μὴ τῶν lovdaiwy ἣν
ὁ θεὸς μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν ἐθνῶν, τοῦ χάριν
Ν
πολὺ μὲν εἰς τοὺς ᾿Ιουδαίους ἔπεμπε τὸ προφητικὸν
χάρισμα καὶ τὸν Μωυσέα καὶ τὸ χρῖσμα καὶ τοὺς
\ \
προφήτας Kal Tov νόμον Kal Ta παράδοξα καὶ τὰ
an lal ,
τεράστια τῶν μύθων ; ἀκούεις yap αὐτῶν Bowv-
ΕΣ ᾿ \
των" “"Aptov ἀγγέλων ἔφαγεν ἄνθρωπος." ἐπὶ
/ \ \ \ ᾽ na » Σ , C ων
τέλους δὲ Kal τὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν ἔπεμψεν ἐκείνοις, ἡμῖν
δὲ οὐ προφήτην, οὐ χρῖσμα, οὐ διδάσκαλον, οὐ
ol ἴω »
κήρυκα περὶ τῆς μελλούσης ὀψέ ποτε γοῦν ἔσεσ-
> ς a δὶ ὮΝ ᾽ fa) / > \
θαι καὶ εἰς ἡμᾶς ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ φιλανθρωπίας. ἀλλὰ
\ 16 7 A (ὃ > δὲ ς a 4 θ
καὶ περιεῖδεν ἐτῶν μυριάδας, εἰ δὲ ὑμεῖς βούλεσθε,
4 a Ὁ
χιλιάδας ἐν ἀγνωσίᾳ τοιαύτῃ τοῖς εἰδώλοις, ὥς
’ /
φατε, λατρεύοντας τοὺς ἀπὸ ἀνίσχοντος ἡλίου
/ - »
μέχρι δυομένου καὶ τοὺς ἀπὸ τῶν ἄρκτων ἄχρι
a \
μεσημβρίας ἔξω καὶ μικροῦ γένους οὐδὲ πρὸ δισ-
342
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
me unto thee, saying, Let my people go that they
may serve me in the wilderness,” 1
But that from the beginning God cared only for
the Jews and that He chose them out as his portion,
has been clearly asserted not only by Moses and
Jesus but by Paul as well; though in Paul’s case this
is strange. For according to circumstances he keeps
changing his views about God, as the polypus changes
its colours to match the rocks,? and now he insists
that the Jews alone are God’s portion, and then
again, when he is trying to persuade the Hellenes to
take sides with him, he says: “ Do not think that he
is the God of Jews only, but also of Gentiles: yea of
Gentiles also.”* Therefore it is fair to ask of Paul
why God, if he was not the God of the Jews only
but also of the Gentiles, sent the blessed gift of
prophecy to the Jews in abundance and gave them
Moses and the oil of anointing, and the prophets and
the law and the incredible and monstrous elements
in their myths? For you hear them crying aloud:
*«* Man did eat angels’ food.”4 And finally God sent
unto them Jesus also, but unto us no prophet, no oil
of anointing, no teacher, no herald to announce his
love for man which should one day, though late, reach
even unto us also, Nay he even looked on for
myriads, or if you prefer, for thousands of years,
while men in extreme ignorance served idols, as you
call them, from where the sun rises to where he
sets, yes and from North to South, save only that
1 Fxrodus 5. 3: the sayings of Jesus and the prophets,
which Julian said he would quote, are missing.
2 For this proverb, derived from Theognis, cf. Misopogon
349p, Vol. 2.
3 Romans 3. 29; Galatians 3. 28. 4 Psalms 78. 25.
343
100 C
106
ἢ,"
115 D
115 αὶ
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
χιλίων ὅλων ἐτῶν ἐν ἑνὶ μέρει συνοικισθέντος
τῆς Παλαιστίνης. εἰ γὰρ πάντων ἡμῶν ἐστι
θεὸς καὶ πάντων δημιουργὸς ὁμοίως, τί περιεῖδεν
ἡμᾶς ; προσήκει τοίνυν τὸν τῶν Ἑβραίων θεὸν
οὐχὶ δὴ παντὸς κόσμου γενεσιουργὸν ὑπάρχειν
οἴεσθαι καὶ κατεξουσιάξειν τῶν ὅλων, συνεστάλ-
θαι δέ, ὡς ἔφην, καὶ “πεπερασμένην ἔχοντα τὴν
ἀρχὴν ἀναμὶξ τοῖς ἄλλοις νοεῖσθαι θεοῖς. ἔτι
προσέξομεν ὑμῖν, ὅτι τὸν τῶν ὅλων θεὸν ἄχρι
ψιλῆς γοῦν ἐννοίας ὑμεῖς ἢ τῆς ὑμετέρας TLS
ἐφαντάσθη ῥίζης ; ov μερικὰ πάντα ταῦτά ἐστι; ;
θεὸς ζηλωτής" ξηλοῖ γὰρ διὰ τί καὶ ἁμαρτίας
ἐκδικῶν πατέρων ἐπὶ τέκνα ; ;
᾿Αλλὰ δὴ σκοπεῖτε πρὸς ταῦτα πάλιν τὰ Tap
ἡμῶν. οἱ γὰρ ἡμέτεροι τὸν δημιουργόν φασιν
ἁπάντων μὲν εἶναι κοινὸν πατέρα καὶ βασιλέα,
νενεμῆσθαι δὲ ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ τὰ λοιπὰ τῶν ἐθνῶν
ἐθνάρχαις καὶ πολιοὔχοις θεοῖς, ὧ ὧν ἕκαστος ἐπι-
τροπεύει τὴν ἑαυτοῦ λῆξιν οἰκείως ἑαυτῴ. ἐπειδὴ
γὰρ ἐν μὲν τῷ πατρὶ πάντα τέλεια καὶ ἕν πάντα,
ἐν δὲ τοῖς μεριστοῖς ἄλλη Tap ἄλλῳ κρατεῖ
δύναμις, "A pns μὲν ἐπιτροπεύει τὰ πολεμικὰ τῶν
ἐθνῶν, ᾿Αθηνᾶ δὲ τὰ μετὰ φρονήσεως πολεμικά,
Ἑρμῆς δὲ τὰ συνετώτερα μᾶλλον ἢ τολμηρότερα,
καὶ καθ' ἑκάστην οὐσίαν τῶν οἰκείων θεῶν ἕπεται
καὶ τὰ ἐπιτροπευόμενα παρὰ σφῶν ἔθνη. εἰ μὲν
οὖν οὐ μαρτυρεῖ τοῖς ἡμετέροις λόγοις ἡ πεῖρα,
πλάσμα μὲν ἔστω τὰ παρ᾽ ἡμῶν καὶ πιθανότης
1 ἐν Klimek supplies.
1 Exodus 20. 5.
344
_ AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
little tribe which less than two thousand years before
had settled in one part of Palestine. For if he is
the God of all of us alike, and the creator of all, why
did he neglect us? Wherefore it is natural to think
that the God of the Hebrews was not the begetter
of the whole universe with lordship over the whole,
but rather, as I said before, that he is confined within
limits, and that since his empire bas bounds we must
conceive of him as only one of the crowd of other
gods. Then are we to pay further heed to you
because you or one of your stock imagined the God
of the universe, though in any case you attained
only to a bare conception of Him? Is not all this
partiality ? God, you say,is a jealous God. But why
is he so jealous, even avenging the sins of the fathers
on the children ἢ}
But now consider our teaching in comparison
with this of yours. Our writers say that the creator
is the common father and king of all things, but that
the other functions have been assigned by him to
national gods of the peoples and gods that protect
the cities; every one of whom administers his own
department in accordance with his own nature. For
since in the father all things are complete and all
things are one, while in the separate deities one
quality or another predominates, therefore Ares
rules over the warlike nations, Athene over those
that are wise as well as warlike, Hermes over
those that are more shrewd than adventurous; and
in short the nations over which the gods preside
follow each the essential character of their proper
god. Now if experience does not bear witness
to the truth of our teachings, let us grant that
our traditions are a figment and ἃ misplaced
345
116A
116 B
131 B
131 C
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
ἄκαιρος, τὰ Tap ὑμῖν δὲ ἐπαινείσθω" εἰ δὲ πᾶν
τοὐναντίον οἷς μὲν ἡμεῖς λέγομεν, ἐξ αἰῶνος ἡ
πεῖρα μαρτυρεῖ, τοῖς ὑμετέροις δὲ λόγοις οὐδὲν
οὐδαμοῦ φαίνεται σύμφωνον, τί τοσαύτης τῆς
φιλονεικίας ἀντέχεσθε ;
Λεγέσθω γάρ μοι, τίς αἰτία τοῦ Κελτοὺς μὲν
εἶναι καὶ Τερμανοὺς θρασεῖς, “Ἑλληνας δὲ καὶ
Ῥωμαίους ὡς ἐπίπαν πολιτικοὺς καὶ φιλανθρώ-
πους μετὰ τοῦ στερροῦ τε καὶ πολεμικοῦ, συνε-
τωτέρους δὲ καὶ τεχνικωτέρους Αἰγυπτίους,
ἀπολέμους δὲ καὶ τρυφηλοὺς Σύρους μετὰ τοῦ
συνετοῦ καὶ θερμοῦ καὶ κούφου καὶ εὐμαθοῦς.
ταύτης γὰρ τῆς ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσι διαφορᾶς εἰ μὲν
οὐδεμίαν τις αἰτίαν συνορῴη, μᾶλλον δὲ αὐτά
φησι καὶ ἐκ τοῦ αὐτομάτου συμπεσεῖν, πῶς ἔτι
προνοίᾳ διοικεῖσθαι τὸν κόσμον οἴεται ; εἰ δὲ
τούτων αἰτίας εἶναί τις τίθεται, λεγέτω μοι πρὸς
αὐτοῦ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ καὶ διδασκέτω. τοὺς μὲν
γὰρ νόμους εὔδηλον, ὡς ἡ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἔθετο
φύσις οἰκείους ἑαυτῇ, πολιτικοὺς μὲν καὶ φιίλαν-
θρώπους, οἷς ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ἐντέθραπτο τὸ φιλάν-
θρωπον, ἀγρίους δὲ καὶ ἀπανθρώπους, οἷς ἐναντία
φύσις ὑπῆν καὶ ἐνυπῆρχε τῶν ἠθῶν. οἱ γὰρ
νομοθέται μικρὰ ταῖς φύσεσι καὶ ταῖς ἐπιτηδειό-
τησι διὰ τῆς ἀγωγῆς προσέθεσαν. οὔκουν ᾿Ανά-
χαρσιν οἱ Σκύθαι βακχεύοντα παρεδέξαντο" οὐδὲ
1 In Misopogon 3598 Julian speaks of the fierceness of the
Celts compared with the Romans.
* A Scythian prince who travelled in search of knowledge
and was counted by some among the seven sages. On his
return to Thrace he is said to have been killed while cele-
brating the rites of Cybele, which were new to the
Scythians ; Herodotus 4. 76, tells the tale to illustrate the
346
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
attempt to convince, and then we ought to
approve the doctrines held by you. If, however,
quite the contrary is true, and from the remotest
past experience bears witness to our account and in
no case does anything appear to harmonise with your
teachings, why do you persist in maintaining a pre-
tension so enormous?
Come, tell me why it is that the Celts and the
Germans are fierce, while the Hellenes and Romans
are, generally speaking, inclined to political life and
humane, though at the same time unyielding and
warlike? Why the Egyptians are more intelligent
and more given to crafts, and the Syrians unwarlike
and effeminate, but at the same time intelligent,
hot-tempered, vain and quick to learn? For if there
is anyone who does not discern a reason for these
differences among the nations, but rather declares
that all this so befell spontaneously, how, I ask, can
he still believe that the universe is administered by
a providence 2) But if there is any man who maintains
that there afe reasons for these differences, let him
tell me them, in the name of the creator himself,
andinstructme. As for men’s laws, it is evident that
men have established them to correspond with their
own natural dispositions ; that is to say, constitutional
and humane laws were established by those in whom
a humane disposition had been fostered above all
else, savage and inhuman laws by those in whom
there lurked and was inherent the contrary dis-
position. (For lawgivers have succeeded in adding
but little by their discipline to the natural characters
and aptitudes of men) Accordingly the Scythians
would not receive Anacharsis? among them when he
Scythian hatred of foreign, and especially of Greek, customs ;
cf. Lucian, Anacharsis.
347
131 D
134 D
134 HK
135 A
THE EMPEROR. JULIAN
TOV ἑσπερίων ἐθνῶν εὕροις ἄν τινας εὐκόλως
πλὴν ὀλίγων σφόδρα ἐπὶ τὸ φιλοσοφεῖν ἢ γεω-
μετρεῖν ἤ τι τῶν τοιούτων ηὐτρεπισμένους, καίτοι
κρατούσης ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον ἤδη τῆς “Ρωμαίων ἡ ἧγεμο-
pias. ἀλλ᾽ ἀπολαύουσι μόνον τῆς διαλέξεως καὶ
τῆς ῥητορείας οἱ λίαν εὐφυεῖς, ἄλλου. δὲ οὐδενὸς
μεταλαμβάνουσι μαθήματος. οὕτως ἴσχυρον
ἔοικεν ἡ φύσις εἶναι. τίς οὖν ἡ διαφορὰ τῶν ἐθνῶν
ἐν τοῖς ἤθεσι καὶ τοῖς νόμοις ; ;
Ὁ μὲν γὰρ Μωυσῆς αἰτίαν ἀποδέδωκε κομιδῇ
μυθώδη τῆς περὶ τὰς διαλέκτους ἀνομοιότητος.
ἔφη γὰρ τοὺς υἱοὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων συνελθόντας
πόλιν ἐθέλειν οἰκοδομεῖν καὶ πύργον ἐν αὐτῇ μέγαν,
φάναι δὲ τὸν θεόν, ὅτι χρὴ κατελθεῖν καὶ τὰς
διαλέκτους αὐτῶν συγχέαι. καὶ ὅπως μή τίς με
νομίσῃ ταῦτα συκοφαντεῖν, καὶ ἐκ τῶν Μωυσέως
ἀναγνωσόμεθα τὰ ἐφεξῆς. “Καὶ εἶπον" δεῦτε,
οἰκοδομήσωμεν ἑαυτοῖς πόλιν καὶ πύργον, οὗ
ἔσται ἡ κεφαλὴ ἕως τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, καὶ “ποιήσωμεν
ἑαυτοῖς ὄνομα πρὸ τοῦ διασπαρῆναι ἐ ἐπὶ προσώπου
πάσης τῆς γῆς. καὶ κατέβη κύριος ἰδεῖν τὴν
πόλιν καὶ τὸν πύργον, ὃν φκοδόμησαν. οἱ υἱοὶ τῶν
ἀνθρώπων. καὶ εἶπε κύριος" ἰδού, γένος ἕν καὶ
χεῖλος ὃν πάντων, καὶ τοῦτο ἤρξαντο ποιῆσαι
καὶ νῦν οὐκ ἐκλείψει ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν πάντα, ὅσα ἂν
ἐπίθωνται ποιεῖν. δεῦτε, καταβάντες ἐκεῖ συγ-
χέωμεν αὐτῶν τὴν γλῶσσαν, ἵνα μὴ ἀκούωσιν
ἕκαστος τῆς φωνῆς τοῦ πλησίον. καὶ διέσπειρεν
αὐτοὺς κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἐπὶ πρόσωπον πάσης τῆς
γῆς καὶ ἐπαύσαντο οἰκοδομοῦντες τὴν πόλιν καὶ
τὸν πύργον. εἶτα τούτοις ἀξιοῦτε πιστεύειν
348
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
was inspired by a religious frenzy, and with very
few exceptions you will not find that any men of the
Western nations! have any great inclination for
philosophy or geometry or studies of that sort,
although the Roman Empire has now so long been
paramount. But those who are unusually talented
delight only in debate and the art of rhetoric, and
do not adopt any other study ; so strong, it seems,
is the force of nature. Whence then come these
differences of character and laws among the nations?
Now of the dissimilarity of language Moses has
given a wholly fabulous explanation. For he said
that the sons of men came together intending to
build a city, and a great tower therein, but that God
said that he must go down and confound their
languages. And that no one may think I am falsely
accusing him of this, I will read from the book of
Moses what follows: “ And they said, Go to, let us
build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach
unto heaven; and let us make us a name, before we
be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
And the Lord came down to see the city and the
tower, which the children of men had builded. And
the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they
have-all one language; and this they have begun to
do; and now nothing will be withholden from them
which they purpose to do. Go to, let us go down,
and there confound their language, that no man may
understand the speech of his neighbour. So the
Lord God scattered them abroad upon the face of
all the earth: and they left off to build the city and
the tower.” 2 And then you demand that we should
1 He means the Gauls and Iberians, since the Germans at
that time were distinguished only in warfare.
2 Genesis 11. 4-8.
349
135 B
135 C
195 D
137 E
138 A
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
ἡμᾶς, ἀπιστεῖτε δὲ ὑμεῖς τοῖς ὑφ᾽ Ὁμήρου λεγο-
μένοις ὑπὲρ τῶν ᾿Αλωαδῶν, ὡς ἄρα τρία ἐπ᾽
ἀλλήλοις “ὄρη θεῖναι διενοοῦντο, “ty οὐρανὸς
ἀμβατὸς εἴη." φημὶ μὲν γὰρ ἐγὼ καὶ τοῦτο παρα-
πλησίως ἐκείνῳ μυθῶδες εἶναι. ὑμεῖς δέ, ἀποδε-
χόμενοι τὸ πρότερον, ἀνθ᾽ ὅτου πρὸς θεῶν ἀποδο-
κιμάζετε τὸν Ὁμήρου μῦθον ; ἐκεῖνο γὰρ οἶμαι
δεῖν σιωπᾶν πρὸς ἄνδρας ἀμαθεῖς, ὅτι κἂν μιᾷ
φωνῇ καὶ γλώσσῃ πάντες οἱ κατὰ πᾶσαν τὴν
οἰκουμένην ἄνθρωποι χρήσωνται, πύργον οἰκοδο-
μεῖν οὐ δυνήσονται πρὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀφικνού-
μενον, κἂν ἐκπλινθεύσωσι τὴν γῆν πᾶσαν'"
ἀπείρων γὰρ δεήσει πλίνθων ἰσομεγεθῶν τῇ γῇ
ξυμπάσῃ τῶν δυνησομένων ἄχρι. τῶν σελήνης
ἐφικέσθαι κύκλων. ὑποκείσθω γὰρ πάντας μὲν
ἀνθρώπους συνεληλυθέναι γλώσσῃ καὶ φωνῇ μιᾷ
κεχρημένους, πᾶσαν δὲ ἐκπλινθεῦσαι τὴν γῆν καὶ
ἐκλατομῆσαι, πότε ἂν μέχρις οὐρανοῦ φθάσειεν,
εἰ καὶ λεπτότερον ἁρπεδόνος ἐκμηρνομένων αὐτῶν
ἐκταθείη ; τοῦτον οὖν οὕτω φανερὸν ὄντα τὸν
μῦθον ἀληθῆ νενομικότες καὶ περὶ τοῦ θεοῦ δοξά-
ἕοντες, ὅτι πεφόβηται τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὴν μιαι-
φονίαν τούτου τε χάριν “καταπεφοίτηκεν αὐτῶν
συγχέαι τὰς διαλέκτους, ἔτι τολμᾶτε θεοῦ γνῶσιν
αὐχεῖν ;
“Exrdverpus δὲ αὖθις πρὸς ἐκεῖνο, τὰς μὲν γὰρ
διαλέκτους. ὅπως ὁ θεὸς συνέχεεν. εἴρηκεν ὁ
Μωυσῆς τὴν μὲν αἰτίαν, ὅτι φοβηθεὶς μή τι κατ᾽
αὐτοῦ πράξωσι προσβατὸν ἑαυτοῖς τὸν οὐρανὸν
κατεργασάμενοι, ὁμόγλωττοι ὄντες καὶ ὁμόφρονες
1 ἐφικνούμενον Klimek.
35°
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
believe this account, while you yourselves disbelieve
Homer’s narrative of the Aloadae, namely that they
planned to set three mountains one on another,
“that so the heavens might be scaled.”"1 For my
part I say that this tale is almost as fabulous as the
other. But if you accept the former, why in the
name of the gods do you discredit Homer’s fable?
For I suppose that to men so ignorant as you I must
say nothing about the fact that, even if all men
throughout the inhabited world ever employ one
speech and one language, they will not be able to
build a tower that will reach to the heavens, even
though they should turn the whole earth into bricks,
For such a tower will need countless bricks each
one as large as the whole earth, if they are to
succeed in reaching to the orbit of the moon. For
let us assume that all mankind met together, em-
ploying but one language and speech, and that they
made the whole earth into bricks and hewed out
stones, when would it reach as high as the heavens,
even though they spun it out and stretched it till it
was finer than a thread? Then do you, who believe
that this so obvious fable is true, and moreover think
that God was afraid of the brutal violence of men,
and for this reason came down to earth to confound
their languages, do you, I say, still venture to boast
of your knowledge of God ?
But I-will go back again to the question how God
confounded their languages. The reason why he
did so Moses has declared: namely, that God was
afraid that if they should have one language and
were of one mind, they would first construct for
themselves a path to the heavens and then do some
1 Odyssey 11. 316.
351
138 B
138 C
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
᾽ / \ \ “Ὁ oe > , >
ἀλλήλοις: TO δὲ πρᾶγμα ὅπως ἐποίησεν ovda-
“ 3 \ / “ \ 2 > fal A
μῶς, ἀλλὰ μόνον, OTL κατελθὼν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ---μὴ
δυνάμενος ἄνωθεν αὐτὸ ποιεῖν, ὡς ἔοικεν, εἰ μὴ
aA θ 3 \ a eye id \ δὲ an \ \ 0
κατῆλθεν ἐπι τῆς γῆς. UTEP O€ τῆς κατὰ τὰ ἤθη
καὶ τὰ νόμιμα διαφορᾶς οὔτε Μωυσῆς οὔτε ἄλλος
b] 7 / / a \ , > \ e
ἀπεσάφησε τις. καίτοι τῷ παντὶ μείζων ἐστὶν ἡ
\ “" al
περὶ TA νόμιμα καὶ τὰ πολιτικὰ τῶν ἐθνῶν ἐν τοῖς
- . \ / n
ἀνθρώποις τῆς περὶ τὰς διαλέκτους διαφορᾶς. τίς
¢ a
yap ᾿Εὐλλήνων ἀδελφῇ, τίς δὲ θυγατρί, τίς δὲ μητρί
“ / A
φησι δεῖν μίγνυσθαι ; τοῦτο δὲ ἀγαθὸν ἐν Πέρσαις
/ al 3
κρίνεται. τί me χρῆ Kal ἕκαστον ἐπιέναι, TO
, / δ΄’ 8 / lal ες /
φιλελεύθερόν Te καί ἀνυπότακτον Γερμανῶν ἐπέξ-
/ Ν / \ \ ΄ὔ \
ἰόντα, TO χειρόηθες Kal τιθασὸν Σύρων καὶ Περ-
σῶν καὶ ἸΤάρθων καὶ πάντων ἁπλῶς τῶν πρὸς ἕω
\ \ Ψ ΄ ΣΝ ὁ \ \
καὶ πρὸς μεσημβρίαν βαρβάρων καὶ ὅσα καὶ τὰς
βασιλείας ἀγαπᾷ κεκτημένα δεσποτικωτέρας ; εἰ
’ 7
μὲν οὖν ἄνευ προνοίας μείζονος καὶ θειοτέρας
r εἶ , 4
ταῦτα συνηνέχθη τὰ μείζω Kal τιμιώτερα, τί
, 4 Ν
μάτην περιεργαζόμεθα καὶ θεραπεύομεν τὸν μηδὲν
lal > , Qn
προνοοῦντα ; @ yap οὔτε βίων οὔτε ἠθῶν οὔτε
/ f na
τρόπων οὔτε εὐνομίας οὔτε πολιτικῆς ἐμέλησε
/ / 2 ν᾿
καταστάσεως, ap ἔτι προσήκει μεταποιεῖσθαι
a “ fal lal ε ἴω
τῆς παρ᾽ ἡμῶν τιμῆς ; οὐδαμῶς. ὁρᾶτε, εἰς ὅσην
A , ἴω \ a
ὑμῖν ἀτοπίαν ὁ λόγος ἔρχεται. τῶν yap ἀγαθῶν
ὅσα περὶ τὸν ἀνθρώπινον θεωρεῖται βίον, ἡγεῖται
μὲν τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς, ἕπεται δὲ τὰ τοῦ. σώματος.
εἰ τοίνυν τῶν ψυχικῶν ἡμῶν ἀγαθῶν κατωλιγώ-
ρήσεν, οὐδὲ τῆς φυσικῆς ἡμῶν κατασκευῆς προ-
1 ὑμῖν Klimek ; ὑμῶν Neumann.
352
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
mischief against him. But how he carried this out
Moses does not say at all, but only that he first came
down from heaven,—because he could not, as it
seems, do it from on high, without coming down to
earth. But with respect to the existing differences
in characters and customs, neither Moses nor any-
one else has enlightened us. And yet among man-
kind the difference between the customs and the
political constitutions of the nations is in every way
greater than the difference in their language. What
Hellene, for instance, ever tells us that a man ought
to marry his sister or his daughter or his mother?
Yet in Persia this is accounted virtuous. But why
need I go over their several characteristics, or describe
the love of liberty and lack of discipline of the
Germans, the docility and tameness of the Syrians,
the Persians, the Parthians, and in short of all the
barbarians in the East and the South, and of all
nations who possess and are contented with a some-
what despotic form of government? Now if these
differences that-are greater and more important came
about without the aid of a greater and more divine
providence, why do we vainly trouble ourselves about
and worship one who takes no thought for us? For
is it fitting that he who cared nothing for our lives,
our characters, our manners, our good government,
our political constitution, should still claim to receive
honour at our hands? Certainly not. You see to
what an absurdity your doctrine comes. For of all
the blessings that we behold in the life of man, those
that relate to the soul come first, and those that
relate to the body are secondary. If, therefore, he
paid no heed to our spiritual blessings, neither took
thought for our physical conditions, and moreover,
353
VOL. Ill, AA
138 D
141 C
141 D
143 A
143 B
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
νοησάμενος, οὔτε ἡμῖν ἔπεμψε διδασκάλους ἢ
, “ a ,¢ 7 Ν Ν /
νομοθέτας ὥσπερ τοῖς ᾿βραίοις κατὰ τὸν Mavoéa
καὶ τοὺς ἐπ᾽ ἐκείνῳ προφήτας, ὑπὲρ τίνος ἕξομεν
αὐτῷ καλῶς εὐχαριστεῖν ;
Cul Te nm
"AXN ὁρᾶτε, μή ποτε Kal ἡμῖν ἔδωκεν ὁ θεὸς
ods ὑμεῖς ἠγνοήκατε θεούς τε καὶ προστάτας
ἀγαθούς, οὐδὲν ἐλάττονας τοῦ παρὰ τοῖς “Ἑβραίοις
ἐξ ἀρχῆς τιμωμένου τῆς ᾿Ιουδαίας, ἧσπερ ἐκεῖνος
προνοεῖν ἔλαχε μόνης, ὥσπερ ὁ Μωυσῆς ἔφη καὶ
οἱ μετ᾽ ἐκεῖνον ἄχρις ἡμῶν. εἰ δὲ ὁ προσεχὴς
εἴη τοῦ κόσμου δημιουργὸς ὁ παρὰ τοῖς ᾿ΕἸβραίοις
τιμώμενος, ἔτι καὶ βέλτιον ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ διενοήθη-
μεν ἡμεῖς ἀγαθά τε ἡμῖν ἔδωκεν ἐκείνων μείζονα
τά τε περὶ ψυχὴν καὶ τὰ ἐκτός, ὑπὲρ ὧν ἐροῦμεν
ψῃς Κ' Ψ » / a Ol a /
ὀλίγου ὕστερον, ἔστειλέ TE Kal ἐφ᾽ ἡμᾶς νομοθέτας
50ῸΝ , / > \ \ \
οὐδὲν Μωυσέως χείρονας, εἰ μὴ τοὺς πολλοὺς
μακρῷ κρείττονας.
“Ὅπερ οὖν ἐλέγομεν, εἰ μὴ καθ᾽ ἕκαστον ἔθνος
ἐθνάρχης τις θεὸς ἐπιτροπεύων ἄγγελός τε ὑπ᾽
b] an \ ὃ 7 \ «@ 1 \ cal ὃ /
αὐτῷ καὶ δαίμων καὶ ἥρως " καὶ ψυχῶν ἰδιάζον
γένος ὑπηρετικὸν καὶ ὑπουργικὸν τοῖς κρείττοσιν
ἔθετο τὴν ἐν τοῖς νόμοις καὶ τοῖς ἤθεσι διαφορό-
τητα, δεικνύσθω, παρ᾽ ἄλλου πῶς γέγονε ταῦτα.
\ \ > \ ᾽ / ft “ce 3 ce θ Ν ὶ
καὶ γὰρ οὐδὲ ἀπόχρη λέγειν" “Εἶπεν o θεὸς κα
ἐγένετο." Qouoroyeiy γὰρ χρὴ τοῖς ἐπιτάγμασι
τοῦ θεοῦ τῶν γινομένων τὰς φύσεις. ὃ δὲ λέγω,
7 7 A » Oe ς Ν /
σαφέστερον ἐρῶ. ἐκέλευσεν ὁ θεὸς ἄνω φέρεσθαι
1 Asmus adds καὶ ἥρως from Oration, 4. 145C ἀγγέλοις,
δαίμοσιν, ἥρωσι, ψυχαῖς τε μερισταῖς.
354
΄
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
did not send to us teachers or lawgivers as he did for
the Hebrews, such as Moses and the prophets who
followed him, for what shall we properly feel
gratitude to him?
But consider whether God has not given to us also
gods! and kindly guardians of whom you have no
knowledge, gods in no way inferior to him who from
the beginning has been held in honour among the
Hebrews of Judaea, the only land that he chose to
take thought for, as Moses declared and those who
came after him, down to ourowntime. But evenifhe
who is honoured among the Hebrews really was the
immediate creator of the universe, our beliefs about
him are higher than theirs, and he has bestowed on
us greater blessings than on them, with respect both
to the soul and to externals. Of these, however, I
shall speak a little later. Moreover, he sent to us
also lawgivers not inferior to Moses, if indeed many
of them were not far superior.
Therefore, as I said, unless for every nation
separately some presiding national god (and under
him an angel,? a demon, a hero, and a peculiar order
of spirits which obey and work for the higher powers)
established the differences in our laws and characters,
you must demonstrate to me how these differences
arose by some other agency. Moreover, it is pot
sufficient to say, “God spake and it was so" σοι
the natures of things that are created ought to
harmonise with the commands of Goi) 1 will say
more clearly what J mean. Did God ordain that
fire should mount upwards by chance and earth
1 Cf. Oration 4, 1404, Vol. 1, om the creative gods,
τ oe Oration 4. 1418, note, and 1450, note; Plato, Laws
355
1450
143 D
143 E
146 A
146 B
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
‘ a 5 ΄ὔ , \ \ a > “ Ν
τὸ πῦρ, εἰ τύχοι, κάτω δὲ τὴν γῆν ; οὐχ ἵνα τὸ
lal a an
πρόσταγμα γένηται τοῦ θεοῦ, TO μὲν ἐχρῆν εἶναι
“ Ἀ Ν / “ Ν b] \ nr [2 /
κοῦφον, τὸ δὲ βρίθειν ; οὕτω καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἑτέρων
e / “
ὁμοίως... τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν
ο mn ,
θείων. αἴτιον δέ, ὅτι τὸ μὲν τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐπί-
, \ / /
κηρὸν ἐστι καὶ φθαρτὸν γένος. εἰκότως οὗν αὐτοῦ
φθαρτὰ καὶ τὰ ἔργα καὶ μεταβλητὰ καὶ παντο-
a a “ «Ὁ
δαπῶς τρεπόμενα" τοῦ θεοῦ δὲ ὑπάρχοντος ἀϊδίου,
ἴα es 3 /
kal τὰ προστάγματα τοιαῦτ᾽ εἶναι προσήκει.
τοιαῦτα δὲ ὄντα ἤτοι φύσεις εἰσὶ τῶν ὄντων ἢ τῇ
φύσει τῶν ὄντων ὁμολογούμενα. πῶς γὰρ ἂν ἡ
φύσις τῷ προστάγματι μάχοιτο τοῦ θεοῦ ; πῶς
ἴω e , an \
δ᾽ ἂν ἔξω πίπτοι τῆς ὁμολογίας ; οὐκοῦν εἰ Kal
προσέταξεν ὥσπερ τὰς γλώσσας συγχυθῆναι καὶ
a : - \
μὴ συμφωνεῖν ἀλλήλαις, οὕτω δὲ Kal τὰ πολιτικὰ
“-“ a /
τῶν ἐθνῶν, οὐκ ἐπιτάγματι͵ δὲ μόνον ἐποίησε
a a \ vA
τοιαῦτα καὶ πεφυκέναι, οὐδὲ ἡμᾶς πρὸς ταύτην
4 n an
κατεσκεύασε THY διαφωνίαν. ἐχρῆν yap πρῶτον
διαφόρους ὑπεῖναι φύσεις τοῖς ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσι δια-
, na “ Qn ‘ a
φόρως ἐσομένοις. ὁρᾶται γοῦν τοῦτο, καὶ τοῖς
΄ " > (ὃ \ \ > 0
σώμασιν εἴ τις ἀπίδοι Τερμανοὶ καὶ Σκύθαι
φ
Λιβύων καὶ Αἰθιόπων ὁπόσον διαφέρουσιν. apa
\ “ a | \ 3 \ 59." e ye’
καὶ τοῦτό ἐστι ψιλὸν ἐπίταγμα, καὶ οὐδὲν ὁ ἀὴρ
οὐδὲ ἡ χώρα τῷ πῶς ἔχειν πρὸς τὸ χρῶμα θεοῖς
συμπράττει; ;
“Ere δὲ καὶ ὁ Μωυσῆς ditexdRptnre. TO τοϊοῦτον
0." > \ \ “ 7 4 > ,
εἰδὼς οὐδὲ THY τῶν διαλέκτων σύγχυσιν ἀνατέ-
1 A few words are lost.
356
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
sink down? Was it not necessary, in order that the
ordinance of God should be fulfilled, for the former
to be light and the latter to weigh heavy? And in
the case of other things also this is equally trye. . . .1
Likewise with respect to things divine, (But the
o death
reason is that
and perishable.
naturally
race of men is doome
herefore :
And since they are such, they are either the natures
of things or are accordant with the nature of things.
For how could nature be at variance with the ordi-
nance of God? How could it fall out of harmony
therewith? Therefore, if he did ordain that even as
our languages are confounded and do not harmonise
with one another, so too should it be with the
political constitutions of the nations, then it was not
by a special, isolated decree that he gave these con-
titutions their essential characteristics, or framed us
also to match this lack of agreement.?_ For different
natures must first have existed in all those things that
among the nations were to be differentiated. This at
any rate is seen if one observes how very different in
their bodies are the Germans and Scythians from the
Libyans and Ethiopians. Can this also be due toa
bare decree, and does not the climate or the
country have a joint influence with the gods in
determining what sort of complexion they have?
Furthermore, Moses also -consciously drew a veil
over this sort of enquiry, and did not assign the
2 2.6. if there were to be differences of speech and political
constitution, they must have been adapted to pre-existing
differences of nature in human beings.
357
148 B
148 C
152 B
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
θεικε TO θεῷ μόνῳ. φησὶ yap αὐτὸν οὐ μόνον
κατελθεῖν οὐ μὴν οὐδὲ ἕνα συγκατελθεῖν αὐτῷ,
πλείονας δέ, καὶ τούτους οἵτινές εἰσιν οὐκ εἶπεν"
εὔδηλον δέ, ὅτι παραπλησίους αὐτῷ τοὺς συγκατ-
ἰόντας ὑπελάμβανεν. εἰ τοίνυν πρὸς τὴν σύγ-
χυσιν τῶν διαλέκτων “οὐχ ὁ κύριος μόνος, ἀλλὰ
καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ κατέρχονται, πρόδηλον, ὅ ὅτι καὶ
πρὸς τὴν σύγχυσιν τῶν ἠθῶν οὐχ ὁ κύριος μόνος,
ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ τὰς διαλέκτους συγχέοντες
εἰκότως ἂν ὑπολαμβάνοιντο ταύτης εἶναι τῆς
διαστάσεως αἴτιοι.
Τί οὖν, οὐκ ἐν μακροῖς εἰπεῖν βουλόμενος,
τοσαῦτα ἐπεξῆλθον ; ὡς, εἰ μὲν ὁ προσεχὴς εἴη
τοῦ κόσμου δημιουργὸς ὁ ὑπὸ τοῦ Μωυσέως
κηρυττόμενος, ἡμεῖς ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ βελτίους ἔχομεν
δόξας οἱ κοινὸν μὲν ἐκεῖνον ὑπολαμβάνοντες ἃ ἁπάν-
των δεσπότην, eOvdpxas δὲ ἄλλους, οἵ τυγχά-
νουσι μὲν ὑπ᾽ ἐκεῖνον, εἰσὶ δὲ ὥσπερ ὕπαρχοι
βασιλέως, ἕκαστος τὴν ἑαυτοῦ διαφερόντως ἐ ἐπαν-
ορθούμενος φροντίδα" καὶ οὐ καθίσταμεν αὐτὸν
οὐδὲ ἀντιμερίτην τῶν ὑπ᾽ αὐτὸν θεῶν καθιστα-
μένων. εἰ δὲ μερικόν τινα τιμήσας ἐκεῖνος ἀντιτί-
θησιν αὐτῷ τὴν τοῦ παντὸς ἡγεμονίαν, ἄμεινον
τὸν τῶν ὅλων θεὸν ἡμῖν πειθομένους ἐπιγνῶναι
μετὰ τοῦ μηδὲ ἐκεῖνον ἀγνοῆσαι, ἢ τὸν τοῦ ἐλαχί-
στου μέρους εἰληχότα τὴν ἡγεμονίαν ἀντὶ τοῦ
πάντων τιμᾶν δημιουργοῦ.
ὋὉ νόμος ἐστὶν ὁ τοῦ Μωυσέως θαυμαστός, ἡ
1 (fenesis 11. 7. ‘*Go to, let us go down, and there
confound their language.” . . . The word “us” has been
variously interpreted.
358
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
confusion of dialects to God alone. For he sayst
that God did not descend alone, but that there
descended with him not one but several, and he did
not say who these were. But it is evident that he
assumed that the beings who descended with God
resembled him. If, therefore, it was not the Lord
alone but his associates with him who descended
for the purpose of confounding the dialects, it is
very evident that for the confusion of men’s char-
- acters, also, not the Lord alone but also those
who together with him confounded the dialects
would reasonably be considered responsible for this
division.
Now why have I discussed this matter at such
length, though it was my intention to speak briefly ?
For this reason: If the immediate creator of the
universe be he who is proclaimed by Moses, then
we hold nobler beliefs concerning him, inasmuch
as we consider him to be the master of all things in
general, but that there are besides national gods
who are subordinate to him and are like viceroys
of a king, each administering separately his own
province ; and, moreover, we do not make him the
sectional rival of the gods whose station is subordinate
to his. But if Moses first pays honour to a sectional
god, and then makes the lordship of the whole
universe contrast with his power, then it is better
to believe as we do, and to recognise the God of
the All, though not without apprehending also the
God of Moses; this is better, | say, than to honour
one who has been assigned the lordship over a
very small portion, instead of the creator of all
things.
That is a surprising law of Moses, I mean the
359
152C
152 D
155 C
155 D
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
δεκάλογος ἐκείνη" “Οὐ κλέψεις, οὐ φονεύσεις, ov
ψευδομαρτυρήσεις." γεγράφθω δὲ αὐτοῖς τοῖς 1
ῥήμασιν ἑκάστη τῶν ἐντολῶν, ἃς ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ φησι
γεγράφθαι τοῦ θεοῦ.
“᾿Εγὼ εἰμι κύριος ὁ θεός σου, ὃς ἐξήγαγέ σε ἐκ
γῆς Αἰγύπτου." δευτέρα μετὰ τοῦτο" “Οὐκ ἔσον-
a, σοι θεοὶ ἕτεροι πλὴν ἐμοῦ. οὐ ποιήσεις σεαυτῷ
εἴδωλον.᾽" καὶ τὴν αἰτίαν προστίθησιν' νὴ Ἐγὼ
γάρ εἶμι κύριος ὁ θεός σου, θεὸς ζηλωτής, ἀποδι- ᾿
δοὺς πατέρων ἁμαρτίας ἐπὶ τέκνα. ἕως τρίτης
γενεᾶς. “Οὐ λήψῃ τὸ ὄνομα κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ
σου ἐπὶ ματαίῳ." “ Μνήσθητι τὴν ἡμέραν τῶν
σαββάτων." i Τίμα σου τὸν πατέρα καὶ τὴν
μητέρα. “Οὐ potyevous.” “Οὐ φονεύσεις. ¥ Oe
κλέψεις." “Οὐ ψευδομαρτυρήσεις." “Οὐκ ἐπι-
θυμήσεις τὰ τοῦ πλησίον σου.
Ποῖον ἔθνος ἐστί, πρὸς τῶν θεῶν, ἔξω τοῦ “Οὐ
προσκυνήσεις θεοῖς ἑτέροις " καὶ τοῦ “ Μνήσθητι
τῆς ἡμέρας τῶν σαββάτων," ὃ μὴ τὰς ἄλλας
οἴεται χρῆναι φυλάττειν ἐντολάς, ὡς καὶ τιμωρίας
κεῖσθαι τοῖς παραβαίνουσιν, ἐνιαχοῦ μὲν σφο-
δροτέρας, ἐνιαχοῦ δὲ παραπλησίας ταῖς παρὰ
Μωυσέως νομοθετείσαις, ἔστι δὲ ὅπου καὶ φιλαν-
θρωποτέρας ; ;
᾿Αλλὰ τὸ “Οὐ προσκυνήσεις θεοῖς ἑτέροις "---
ὃ δὴ μετὰ μεγάλης περὶ τὸν θεόν φησι διαβολῆς.
“ Θεὸς γὰρ ξηλωτής ” φησι" καὶ ἐν ἄλλοις πάλιν"
“Ὁ θεὸς ἡ ἡμῶν πῦρ καταναλίσκον.᾽" εἶτα ἄνθρωπος
ζηλωτὴς καὶ βάσκανος ἄξιος εἶναί σοι φαίνεται
1 rois Klimek adds.
1 Exodus 20. 2-3. 2 Exodus 20.4. * Exodus 20. 13-17.
360
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
famous decalogue! “Thou shalt not steal.” “Thou
shalt not kill.” “Thou shalt not bear false witness.”’
But let me write out word for word every one of
the commandments which he says were written by
God himself.
“T am the Lord thy God, which have brought
thee out of the land of Egypt.” 1 Then follows the
second: “Thou shalt,have no other gods but me.”
“ Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.” *
And then he adds the reason: “ For I the Lord thy
God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children unto the third generation.”
“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God
in vain.” ‘ Remember the sabbath day.” ‘ Honour
thy father and thy mother.” “ Thou shalt not commit
adultery.” “Thou shalt not kill.” “Thou shalt not
steal.”’ ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness.” ‘ ‘Thou
shalt not covet anything that is thy neighbour's,” ὃ
Now except for the command ‘Thou shalt not
worship other gods,’’ and * Remember the sabbath
day,’ what nation is there, I ask in the name of the
gods, which does not think that it ought to keep
the other commandments? So much so that penal-
ties have been ordained against those who transgress
them, sometimes more severe, and sometimes similar \
to those enacted by Moses, though they are
sometimes more humane.
‘But as for the commandment “Thou shalt not
worship other gods,’”’ to this surely he adds a
terrible libel upon God. “ For I am a jealous God,”
he says, and in another place again, “Our God isa
consuming fire.’ Then if a man is jealous and
envious you think him blameworthy, whereas if Ged
* Deuteronomy 4. 24; Hebrews 12. 29.
361
155 E
159 E
160 D
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
μέμψεως, ἐκθειάξεις δέ, εἰ ζ ἡλότυπος ὁ θεὸς λέγε-
ται; καίτοι πῶς εὔλογον οὕτω φανερὸν πρᾶγμα
τοῦ θεοῦ καταψεύδεσθαι ; ; καὶ γὰρ εἰ ξηλότυπος,
ἄκοντος αὐτοῦ πάντες οἱ θεοὶ προσκυνοῦνται καὶ
πάντα τὰ λοιπὰ τῶν ἐθνῶν τοὺς θεοὺς προσκυνεῖ.
εἶτα πῶς οὐκ ἀνέστειλεν αὐτὸς ζηλῶν οὕτω καὶ
μὴ βουλόμενος προσκυνεῖσθαι τοὺς ἄλλους, ἀλλὰ
/ e / θ᾿ 3 5 3 5 x 0." Ν
μόνον ἑαυτόν ; ἄρ᾽ οὖν οὐχ δἷός τε ἦν ἢ οὐδὲ τὴν
ἀρχὴν ἠβουλήθη κωλῦσαι μὴ προσκυνεῖσθαι καὶ
τοὺς ἄλλους θεούς ; » ἀλλὰ τὸ μὲν πρῶτον ἀσεβές,
τὸ δὴ λέγειν ὡς οὐκ ἠδύνατο" τὸ δεύτερον δὲ τοῖς
ἡμετέροις ἔργοις ὁμολογεῖ. ἄφετε τοῦτον τὸν
λῆρον καὶ μὴ τηλικαύτην ἐφ᾽ ὑμᾶς αὐτοὺς ἕλκετε
βλασφημίαν. εἰ γὰρ οὐδένα θέλει προσκυνεῖσθαι,
τοῦ χάριν αὐτοῦ τὸν νόθον υἱὸν τοῦτον προσκυ-
νεῖτε καὶ ὃν ἐκεῖνος ἴδιον οὔτε ἐνόμισεν ov?” ἡγή-
σατο πώποτε. καὶ δείξω γε τοῦτο ῥᾳδίως. ὑμεῖς
δέ, οὐκ οἶδ᾽ ὅθεν, ὑπόβλητον. αὐτῷ προστίθετε ΣΑΣ ΚΝ
Οὐδαμοῦ χαλεπαίνων ὁ θεὸς φαίνεται οὐδὲ
ἀγανακτῶν οὐδὲ ὀργιζόμενος οὐδὲ ὁ ὀμνύων οὐδ᾽ ἐπ᾽
ἀμφότερα ταχέως ῥέπων οὐδὲ OT pEeT TOS, ὡς ὁ
Μωυσῆς φησιν ἐπὶ τοῦ Φινεές. εἴ τις ὑμῶν ἀνέγνω
τοὺς ἀριθμούς, οἷδεν ὃ λέγω. ἐπειδὴ γὰρ Φινεὲς τὸν
τελεσθέντα τῷ Βεελφεγὼρ μετὰ τῆς ἀναπεισάσης
αὐτὸν γυναικὸς αὐτοχειρίᾳ λαβὼν ἀπέκτεινεν
αἰσχρῷ καὶ ὀδυνηροτάτῳ τραύματι, διὰ τῆς μή-
1 Neumann suggests οὐδὲ στρεπτὸς or οὐδὲ μεταβλητὸς to
represent neque mutabilis esse, the translation of one MS.,
Occolampadius.
* According to Cyril’s summary, Julian next reproaches
the Christians for having forsaken the Greek doctrines about
God,
362
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
is called jealous you think it a divine quality? And
yet how is it reasonable to speak falsely of God in a
matter that is so evident? For if he is indeed
jealous, then against his will are all other gods
worshipped, and against his will do all the remaining
nations worship their gods. Then how is it that he
did not himself restrain them, if he is so jealous and
does not wish that the others should be worshipped,
but only himself? Can it be that he was not able
to do so, or did he not wish even from the beginning
to prevent the other gods also from being worshipped ?
However, the first explanation is impious, to say, I
mean, that he was unable; and the second is in
accordance with what we do ourselves. Lay aside
this nonsense and do not draw down on yourselves
such terrible blasphemy. For if it is God’s will that
none other should be worshipped, why do you
worship this spurious son of his whom he has never
yet recognised or considered as his own? This I
shall easily prove. You, however, I know not why,
foist on him a counterfeit son. . . .ἷ
Nowhere 3 is God shown as angry, or resentful, or
wroth, or taking an oath, or inclining first to this
side, then suddenly to that, or as turned from his
purpose, as Moses tells us happened in the case of
Phinehas. If any of you has read the Book of
Jumbers he knows what I'mean. For when Phine-
has had seized with his own hand and slain the man
who had dedicated himself to Baal-peor, and with
him the woman who had persuaded him, striking
her with a shameful and most painful wound through
2 ὦ. 6, in the Greek accounts of the gods; probably Julian
refers to Plato and a phrase to this effect may have dropped
out at the beginning of the sentence.
363
160 E
161 A
168 B
168 C
171 D
171 E
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
τρας, φησί, παίσας THY γυναῖκα, πεποίηται λέγων
ὁ θεός" “Φινεὲς vids ᾿Ελεάζαρ υἱοῦ ᾿Ααρὼν
τοῦ ἱερέως κατέπαυσε τὸν θυμόν μου ἀπὸ υἱῶν
Ἰσραὴλ ἐν τῷ ζηλῶσαί μου τὸν ζῆλον ἐν αὐτοῖς.
καὶ οὐκ ἐξανήλωσα τοὺς υἱοὺς ᾿Ισραὴν ἐν τῷ
ζήλῳ pov.” τί κουφότερον τῆς αἰτίας, ou ἣν θεὸς
ὀργισθεὶς οὐκ ἀληθῶς ὑπὸ τοῦ γράψαντος ταῦτα
πεποίηται; τί δὲ ἀλογώτερον, εἰ δέκα ἢ πεντε-
καίδεκα, κείσθω δὲ καὶ ἑκατόν, οὐ γὰρ δὴ χιλίους
ἐροῦσι---ς-Εὥμεν δὲ ἡμεῖς καὶ τοσούτους τολμή-
σαντάς τι τῶν ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ τεταγμένων νόμων
παραβῆναι: ἑξακοσίας ἐχρῆν διὰ τοὺς ἅπαξ
χιλίους ἀναλωθῆναι χιλιάδας ; ὡς ἔμοιγε κρεῖττον
εἶναι τῷ παντὶ φαίνεται χιλίοις ἀνδράσι βελτί-
oto ἕνα συνδιασῶσαι πονηρὸν ἢ συνδιαφθεῖραι
τοὺς χιλίους ἑνί. . ..
Ki γὰρ καὶ ἑνὸς ἡρώων καὶ οὐκ ἐπισήμου
δαίμονος δύσοιστος ἡ ὀργὴ χώραις τε καὶ πόλεσιν
ὁλοκλήροις, τίς ἂν ὑπέστη τοσούτου θεοῦ δαίμοσιν
ἢ ἀγγέλοις ἢ καὶ ἀνθρώποις ἐπιμηνίσαντος ; ἄξιόν
γέ ἐστι παραβαλεῖν αὐτὸν τῇ Λυκούργου πραότητι
καὶ τῇ Σόλωνος ἀνεξικακίᾳ ἢ τῇ Ῥωμαίων πρὸς
τοὺς ἠδικηκότας ἐπιεικείᾳ καὶ χρηστότητι. πόσῳ
δὲ δὴ τὰ παρ᾽ ἡμῖν τῶν παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς κρείττονα,
καὶ ἐκ τῶνδε σκοπεῖτε. μιμεῖσθαι κελεύουσιν
ἡμᾶς οἱ φιλόσοφοι κατὰ δύναμιν τοὺς θεούς, εἶναι
δὲ ταύτην τὴν μίμησιν ἐν θεωρίᾳ τῶν ὄντων. ὅτι
δὲ τοῦτο δόχᾳ πάθους ἐστὶ καὶ ἐν ἀπαθείᾳ κεῖται,
1 Numbers 25) 11.
ccordi o Cyril, Julian then argued that the Creator
ought not to have given way so often to violent anger against
and even wished to destroy, the whole Jewish people.
364
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
the belly, as Moses tells us, then God is made to say:
** Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the
priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children
of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy
among them; and I consumed not the children of
Israel in my jealousy.”1 What could be more
trivial than the reason for which God was falsely
represented as angry by the writer of this passage?
What could be more irrational, even if ten or fifteen
persons, or even, let us suppose, a hundred, for
they certainly will not say that there were a
thousand,—however, let us assume that even as
many persons as that ventured to transgress some
one of the laws laid down by God; was it right
that on account of this one thousand, six hundred
thousand should be utterly destroyed? For my
part I think it would be better in every way to
preserve one bad man along with a thousand virtuous
men than to destroy the thousand together with
that..one, ἐπε 7
For if the anger of even one hero or unimportant
demon is hard to bear for whole countries and cities,
who could have endured the wrath of so mighty a
God, whether it were directed against demons or
angels or mankind? It is worth while to compare
his behaviour with the mildness of Lyeurgus and
the forbearance of Solon, or the kindness and bene-
volence of the Romans towards transgressors. But
observe also from what follows how far superior are
our teachings to theirs, The philosophers bid us
imitate the gods so far as we can, and they teach us
that this imitation consists in the contemplation of
realities. And that this sort of study is remote from
passion and is indeed based on freedom from passion,
365
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
πρόδηλόν ἐστί που, κἂν ἐγὼ μὴ λέγω" καθ᾽ ὅσον
ἄρα ἐν ἀπαθείᾳ γινόμεθα, τεταγμένοι περὶ τῶν
ὄντων τὴν ἴ θεωρίαν, κατὰ τοσοῦτον ἐξομοιούμεθα
τῷ θεῷ. τίς δὲ ἡ map’ Ἑβραίοις ὑμνουμένη τοῦ
θεοῦ μίμησις ; ; ὀργὴ καὶ θυμὸς καὶ ξῆλος ἄγριος.
172 A
176
AB
176 C
“Φινεὲς ” “γάρ φησι “κατέπαυσε τὸν θυμόν μου
ἀπὸ υἱῶν ᾿Ισραὴλ ἐν τῷ ζηλῶσαι τὸν ζῆλόν μοῦ
ἐν αὐτοῖς. εὑρὼν γὰρ ὁ θεὸς τὸν συναγανα-
κτοῦντα καὶ συναλγοῦντα ἀφεὶς τὴν ἀγανάκτησιν
φαίνεται. ταῦτα καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα περὶ θεοῦ ἕ ἕτερα
πεποίηται λέγων ὁ Μωυσῆς οὐκ ὀλιγαχοῦ τῆς
γραφῆς.
Ὅτι δὲ οὐχ ᾿Εβραίων μόνον ἐμέλησε, τῷ θεῷ,
πάντων δὲ ἐθνῶν κηδόμενος ἔδωκεν ἐκείνους μὲν
οὐδὲν σπουδαῖον ἢ μέγα, ἡμῖν δὲ μακρῷ κρείττονα
καὶ διαφέροντα, σκοπεῖτε λοιπὸν τὸ ἐντεῦθεν.
ἔχουσι μὲν εἰπεῖν καὶ Αἰγύπτιοι, παρ᾽ ἑαυτοῖς
ἀπαριθμούμενοι σοφῶν οὐκ ὀλίγων ὀνόματα, πολ-
λοὺς ἐσχηκέναι τοὺς ἀπὸ τῆς Ἑρμοῦ διαδοχῆς,
‘Eppob δέ φημι τοῦ τρίτου ἐπιφοιτήσαντος τῇ
Αἰγύπτῳ, Χαλδαῖοι δὲ καὶ ᾿Ασσύριοι τοὺς ἀπ᾽
᾿᾽Ωάννου καὶ Βήλου, μυρίους δὲ“ EdAnves TOUS ἀπὸ
Xeipwvos. ἐκ τούτου γὰρ πάντες ἐγένοντο τελε-
στικοὶ φύσει καὶ ᾿θεολογικοί, καθὸ δὴ δοκοῦσι
μόνον ‘EBpaio τὰ ἑαυτῶν ἀποσεμνύνειν .... «
1 στὴν Klimek adds.
1 A reference to Hermes Trismegistus, ‘‘thrice greatest
Hermes,” whom the Greeks identified with the Egyptian
god Thoth. The Neo-Platonists ascribed certain mystic
writings to this legendary being and regarded him as a sage.
2 A Babylonian ‘fish- -god described hy Berosus in his History
of Babylonia. He was supposed to have taught the Chal-
daeans the arts of civilisation and has some analogy with the
serpent of Genesis,
366
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
is, I suppose, evident, even without my saying it.
In proportion then as we, having been assigned to
the contemplation of realities, attain to freedom
from passion, in so far do we become like God. But
what sort of imitation of God is praised among the
Hebrews? Anger and wrath and fierce jealousy.
For God says: “Phinehas hath turned away my
wrath from the children of Israel, in that he was
jealous with my jealousy among them.” For God,
on finding one who shared his resentment and his
grief, thereupon, as it appears, laid aside his resent-
ment. These words and others like them about God
Moses is frequently made to utter in the Scripture.
Furthermore observe from what follows that God
did not take thought for the Hebrews alone, but
though he cared for all nations, he bestowed on the
Hebrews nothing considerable or of great value,
whereas on us he bestowed gifts far higher and
surpassing theirs. For instance the Egyptians, as
they reckon up the names of not a few wise men
among themselves, can boast that they possess many
successors of Hermes, I mean of Hermes who in his
third manifestation visited Egypt ;1 while the Chal-
daeans and Assyrians can boast of the successors of
Oannes? and Belos;* the Hellenes can boast of count-
less successors of Cheiron.4 For thenceforth all
Hellenes were born with an aptitude for the mysteries
and theologians, in the very way, you observe, which
the Hebrews claim as their own peculiar boast. . . .5
8. This is the Greek version of the Assyrian Dil, ‘‘lord” or
“ἐ god,” the Baal of the Bible.
4 The Centaur who taught Achilles.
5 According to Cyril’s summary, Julian then ridicules
David and Samson and says that they were not really brave
warriors, but far inferior to the Hellenes and Egyptians, and
their dominion was very limited.
367
178 A
178 B
184 B
184 C
190 C
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
᾿Αλλ᾽ ἀρχὴν ἔδωκεν ὑ Be ἐπιστήμης i) μάθημα
φιλόσοφον ; ; Kal ποῖον ; ; ἡ μὲν yap περὶ τὰ φαι-
νόμενα θεωρία παρὰ τοῖς “Ἕλλησιν ἐτελειώθη, τῶν
πρώτων τηρήσεων παρὰ τοῖς βαρβάροις ἐ ἐν Βαβυ-
λῶνι γενομένων" ἡ δὲ περὶ τὴν γεωμετρίαν ἀπὸ
τῆς γεωδαισίας τῆς ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ τὴν ἀρχὴν λα-
βοῦσα πρὸς τοσοῦτον “μέγεθος ηὐξήθη: τὸ δὲ
περὶ τοὺς ἀριθμοὺς ἀπὸ τῶν Φοινίκων ἐμπόρων
ἀρξάμενον τέως εἰς ἐπιστήμης παρὰ τοῖς “Ελλησι
κατέστη πρόσχημα. ταῦτα δὴ τρία μετὰ " τῆς
συναρίθμου ὃ μουσικῆς Ἕλληνες εἰς ἕν συνῆψαν,
ἀστρονομίαν γεωμετρίᾳ προσυφήναντες, ἀμφοῖν
δὲ προσαρμόσαντες τοὺς ἀριθμοὺς καὶ τὸ ἐν τού-
τοις ἐναρμόνιον κατανοήσαντες. ἐντεῦθεν ἔθεντο
τῇ παρὰ σφίσι μουσικῇ τοὺς ὅρους, εὑρόντες τῶν
ἁρμονικῶν λόγων “πρὸς τὴν αἴσθησιν τῆς ἀκοῆς
ἄπταιστον ὁμολογίαν ἢ ὅτι τούτου μάλιστα ἐγγύς.
Πότερον οὖν χρή με κατ᾽ ἄνδρα ὀνομάζειν ἢ
κατ᾽ ἐπιτηδεύματα ; ἢ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, οἷον Πλά-
τωνα, Σωκράτην, ᾿Αριστείδην, Κίμωνα, Θαλῆν,
Λυκοῦργον, ᾿Αγησίλαον, ᾿Αρχίδαμον---ἢ μᾶλλον
τὸ τῶν φιλοσόφων γένος, τὸ τῶν στρατηγῶν, τὸ
τῶν δημιουργῶν, τὸ τῶν νομοθετών ; εὑρεθήσονται
γὰρ οἱ μοχθηρότατοι καὶ βδελυρώτατοι τῶν στρα-
τηγῶν ἐπιεικέστερον χρησάμενοι τοῖς ἡδικηκόσι τὰ
μέγιστα ἢ “Μωυσῆς τοῖς οὐδὲν ἐξημαρτηκόσιν.
τίνα οὖν ὑμῖν ἀπαγγείλω βασιλείαν ; ; πότερα τὴν
Περσέως ἢ τὴν Αἰακοῦ ἢ Μίνω τοῦ Κρητός, ὃ ὃς
ἐκάθηρε μὲν λῃστευομένην τὴν θάλασσαν, ἐκβα-
1 ταῦτα Klimek, τὰ Neumann.
2 Klimek defends μετά, Neumann suggests μαθήματα.
* For συμαωίθμου corrupt, Neumann suggests εὐρύθμου.
368
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
But has God granted to you to originate any science
or any philosophical study? Why, what is it? For
the theory of the heavenly bodies was perfected
among the Hellenes, after the first observations had
been made among the barbarians in Babylon.t And
the study of geometry took its rise in the measure-
ment of the land in Egypt, and from this grew to
its present importance. Arithmetic began with the
Phoenician merchants, and among the Hellenes in
course of time acquired the aspect of a regular
science. These three the Hellenes combined with
music into one science, for they connected astronomy
with geometry and adapted arithmetic to both, and
perceived the principle of harmony in it. Hence
they laid down the rules for their music, since they
had discovered for the laws of harmony with refer-
ence to the sense of hearing an agreement that was
infallible, or something very near to it.”
Need I tell over their names man by man, or
under their professions? I mean, either the indi-
vidual men, as for instance Plato, Socrates, Aris-
teides, Cimon, Thales, Lycurgus, Agesilaus, Archi-
damus,—or should I rather speak of the class of
philosophers, of generals, of artificers, of lawgivers?
For it will be found that even the most wicked and
most brutal of the generals behaved more mildly to
the greatest offenders than Moses did to those who
had done no wrong. And now of what monarchy
shall I report to you? Shall it be that of Perseus,
or Aeacus, or Minos of Crete, who purified the sea
1 Of. Oration 4. 156c, the Hellenes perfected the astronomy
of the Chaldaeans and Egyptians.
2 They had discovered the laws of musical intervals.
369
VOL, III. ΒΒ
193 C
193 D
194 B
194 Ὁ
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
λὼν καὶ ἐξελάσας τοὺς βαρβάρους ἄχρι Συρίας
καὶ Σικελίας, ἐφ᾽ ἑκάτερα προβὰς τοῖς τῆς ἀρχῆς
ὁρίοις, οὐ μόνων δὲ τῶν νήσων, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν
παραλίων ἐκράτει ; καὶ διελόμενος πρὸς τὸν ἀδελ-
φὸν Ραδάμανθυν, οὔτι τὴν γῆν, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἐπιμέ-
λείαν τῶν ἀνθρώπων, αὐτὸς μὲν ἐτίθει παρὰ τοῦ
Διὸς λαμβάνων τοὺς νόμους, ἐκείνῳ δὲ τὸ δικαστι-
κὸν ἠφίει μέρος ἀναπληροῦν . . . .
"AAN ἐπειδὴ κτισθεῖσαν αὐτὴν πολλοὶ μὲν
περιέστησαν πόλεμοι, πάντων δὲ ἐκράτει καὶ
κατηγωνίζετο καί, παρ᾽ αὐτὰ μᾶλλον αὐξανομένη
τὰ δεινά, τῆς ἀσφαλείας ἐδεῖτο μείζονος, αὖθις
ὁ Ζεὺς τὸν φιλοσοφώτατον αὐτῇ Νουμᾶν ἐφί-
στησιν. οὗτος ἦν ὁ καλὸς καὶ ἀγαθὸς ὁ
Νουμᾶς, ἄλσεσιν ἐρήμοις ἐνδιατρίβων καὶ συνὼν
ἀεὶ τοῖς θεοῖς κατὰ τὰς ἀκραιφνεῖς αὐτοῦ
νοήσεις. . . .«. οὗτος τοὺς πλείστους τῶν ἱερα-
τικῶν κατέστησε νόμους. ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἐκ
κατοχῆς καὶ ἐπιπνοίας θείας ἔκ τε τῶν τῆς Σιβύλ-
Ans καὶ τῶν ἄλλων, οἱ δὴ γεγόνασι κατ᾽ ἐκεῖνον
τὸν χρόνον κατὰ τὴν πάτριον φωνὴν χρησμολόγοι,
φαίνεται δοὺς ὁ Ζεὺς τῇ πόλει. τὴν δὲ ἐξ ἀέρος
πεσοῦσαν ἀσπίδα καὶ τὴν ἐν τῷ λόφῳ κεφαλὴν
φανεῖσαν, ὅθεν, οἶμαι, καὶ τοὔνομα προσέλαβεν ἡ
1 According to Cyril, Julian then related stories about
Minos, and the myth of Dardanus, the account of the flight
of Aeneas, his emigration to. Italy and the founding of
Rome. 2 7. e. Rome.
3 Numa Pompilius, a legendary king who is supposed to
have succeeded Romulus; various portents manifested the
favour of the gods towards Numa, Cf. Julian, Oration 4.
1554, note, Vol. 1.
“ A few words are missing.
37°
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
of pirates, and expelled and drove out the barbarians
as far as Syria and Sicily, advancing in both direc-
ticns the frontiers of his realm, and ruled not
only over the islands but also over the dwellers
along the coasts? And dividing with his brother
Rhadamanthus, not indeed the earth, but the care
of mankind, he himself laid down the laws as he
received them from Zeus, but left to Rhadamanthus
to fill the part of judge... .1
But when after her 5 foundation many wars encom-
passed her, she won and prevailed in them all;
and since she ever increased in size in proportion to
her very dangers and needéd greater security, then
Zeus set over her the great philosopher Numa.
This then was the excellent and upright Numa who
dwelt in deserted groves and ever communed with
the gods in the pure thoughts of his own heart. . . .4
It was he who established most of the laws con-
cerning temple worship. Now these blessings, derived
from a divine possession and inspiration which pro-
ceeded both from the Sibyl and others who at that
time uttered oracles in their native tongue, were
manifestly bestowed on the city by Zeus. And the
shield which fell from the clouds® and the head
which appeared on the hill,® from which, 1 suppose,
5 A small shield, ancile, on whose preservation the power
of Rome was supposed to depend, was said to have fallen
from the sky in Numa’s reign. Livy 1. 20 refers to it in the
plural, caelestia arma quae ancilia appellantur; cf. also
Aeneid 8. 664, lapsa ancilia coelo,
6 When the foundations were dug for the temple of Jupiter
a human head, caput, was found; this was regarded as an
omen, and hence the Capitoline Hill received its name; cf.
Livy 1.55. For Julian’s belief in such traditions cf. Oration 5.
Vol. 1, 1618 on the legend of Claudia and the image of
Cybele.
371
BB Y
194 D
198 D
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
τοῦ μεγάλου Διὸς ἕδρα, πότερον ἐν τοῖς πρώτοις ἢ
τοῖς δευτέροις ἀριθμήσωμεν τῶν δώρων ; ; «εἶτα, ὦ
δυστυχεῖς ἄνθρωποι, σωζομένου τοῦ παρ᾽ ἡμῖν! ὅπ-
λου διοπετοῦς, ὃ ὃ κατέπεμψεν ὁ μέγας Ζεὺς ἤτοι
πατὴρ Λρης, € ἐνέχυρον διδοὺς οὐ λόγον, ἔ ἔργον δέ, ὅτι
τῆς πόλεως ἡμῶν εἰς τὸ διηνεκὲς προασπίσει, προσ-
κυνεῖν ἀφέιτες καὶ σέβεσθαι, τὸ τοῦ σταυροῦ προσ-
κυνεῖτε ξύλον, εἰκόνας αὐτοῦ σκιαγραφοῦντες ἐν
τῷ μετώπῳ καὶ πρὸ τῶν οἰκημάτων ἐγγράφοντες.
“Apa ἀξίως ἄν τις τοὺς συνετωτέρους ὑμῶν
μισήσειεν ἢ τοὺς ἀφρονεστέρους ἐλεήσειεν, οἱ κατα-
κολουθοῦντες ὑμῖν, εἰς τοσοῦτον ἦλθον ὀλέθρου,
ὥστε τοὺς αἰωνίους ἀφέντες θεοὺς ἐπὶ τὸν ᾿Ιου-
δαίων μεταβῆναι νεκρόν; . . . παρίημι γὰρ τὰ τῆς
μητρὸς τῶν θεῶν μυστήρια καὶ ζηλῶ τὸν Μάριον.
... τὸ γὰρ ἐκ θεῶν εἰς ἀνθρώπους ἀφικνούνενον
πνεῦμα σπανιάκις μὲν καὶ ἐν ὀλίγοις γίνεται καὶ
οὔτε πάντα ἄνδρα τούτου μετασχεῖν ῥᾷδιον οὔτε
ἐν παντὶ καιρῷ. ταύτῃ τοι καὶ τὸ παρ᾽ Ἑβραίοις
προφητικὸν πνεῦμα ἐπέλιπεν, οὐκοῦν οὐδὲ παρ᾽
Αἰγυπτίοις εἰς τοῦτο σώξεται. φαίνεται δὲ καὶ
τὰ αὐτοφυῆ χρηστήρια σιγῆσαι ταῖς τῶν χρόνων
εἴκοντα περιόδοις. ὃ δὴ φιλάνθρωπος ἡμῶν
δεσπότης καὶ πατὴρ Ζεὺς ἐννοήσας, ὡς ἂν μὴ
παντάπασι τῆς πρὸς τοὺς θεοὺς ἀποστερηθῶμεν
κοινωνίας, δέδωκεν ἡμῖν διὰ τῶν ἱερῶν τεχνῶν
ἐπίσκεψιν, ὑφ᾽ ἧς πρὸς τὰς χρείας ἕξομεν τὴν
ἀποχρῶσαν βοήθειαν.
1 Here Cyril retorts that Julian admired what others
condemn, e.g. the cruel and superstitious Marius, who, said
he, was given to the Romans by the gods, The ‘worship of
Cybele was another gift from heaven to Rome, Julian then
referred to various kinds of divination.
372
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
the seat of mighty Zeus received its name, are we to
reckon these among the very highest or among
secondary gifts? And yet, ye misguided men, though
there is preserved among us that weapon which flew
down from heaven, which mighty Zeus or father
Ares sent down to give us a warrant, not in word
but in deed, that he will forever hold his shield
before our city, you have ceased to adore and rever-
ence it, but you adore the wood of the cross and
draw its likeness on your foreheads and engrave it
on your housefronts.
Would not any man be justified in detesting the
more intelligent among you, or pitying the more
foolish, who, by following you, have sunk to such
depths of ruin that they have abandoned the ever-
living gods and have gone over to the corpse of the
Jew.! . . . For I say nothing about the Mysteries
of the Mother of the Gods, and 1 admire Marius. .. .
For the spirit that comes to men from the gods is
present but seldom and in few, and it is not easy
for every man to share in it or at every time. Thus
it is that the prophetic spirit has ceased among the
Hebrews also, nor is it maintained among the
Egyptians, either, down to the present. And we
see that the indigenous oracles ? of Greece have also
fallen silent and yielded to the course oftime. Then
lo, our gracious lord and father Zeus took thought
of this, and that we might not be wholly deprived
of communion with the gods has granted us through
the sacred arts? a means of enquiry by which we
may obtain the aid that suffices for our needs.
2 Julian is thinking of the oracle of Delphi which he had
in vain endeavoured to restore.
3 ἡ, 6, of divination by entrails and other omens.
373
200 A
200 B
201 E
202 A
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
"Eradé με μικροῦ τὸ μέγιστον τῶν ᾿Ηλίου καὶ
Διὸς δώρων. εἰκότως δὲ αὐτὸ ἐφύλαξα ἐνὶ τῷ
τέλει. καὶ γὰρ οὐκ ἴδιόν ἐστιν ἡμῶν μόνον, ἀλλ᾽,
οἶμαι, κοινὸν πρὸς Ἕλληνας, τοὺς ἡμετέρους ouy-
γενεῖς. ὁ γάρ τοι Ζεὺς ἐν μὲν τοῖς νοητοῖς ἐξ
ἑαυτοῦ τὸν ᾿Ασκληπιὸν ἐγέννησεν, εἰς δὲ τὴν γῆν
διὰ τῆς Ἡλίου γονίμου ζωῆς ἐξέφηνεν. οὗτος ἐπὶ
γῆς ἐξ οὐρανοῦ ποιησάμενος τὴν πρόοδον, ἑνοειδῶς
μὲν ἐν ἀνθρώπου μορφῇ περὶ τὴν ᾿Επίδαυρον
ἀνεφάνη, πληθυνόμενος δὲ ἐντεῦθεν ταῖς προόδοις
ἐπὶ πᾶσαν ὠρεξε τὴν γῆν τὴν σωτήριον ἑαυτοῦ
δεξιάν. ἦλθεν εἰς Πέργαμον, εἰς ᾿Ιωνίαν, εἰς
Τάραντα μετὰ ταῦθ᾽, ὕστερον ἦλθεν εἰς τὴν
Ῥώμην. @xeto δὲ εἰς Κῶ, ἐνθένδε εἰς Αὐγάς.
εἶτα πανταχοῦ γῆς ἐστι καὶ θαλάσσης. οὐ καθ᾽
ἕκαστον ἡμῶν ἐπιφοιτᾷ, καὶ ὅμως ἐπανορθοῦται
ψυχὰς πλημμελῶς διακειμένας καὶ τὰ σώματα
ἀσθενῶς ἔχοντα.
Τί δὲ τοιοῦτον ἑαυτοῖς Ἑβραῖοι Kav ὥνται
παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ δεδόσθαι, πρὸς ods ὑμεῖς ἀφ ἡμῶν
αὐτομολήσαντες πείθεσθε; εἰ τοῖς ἐκείνων γοῦν
προσείχετε λόγοις, οὐκ ἂν παντάπασιν ἐπεπρά-
γειτε δυστυχῶς, ἀλλὰ χεῖρον μὲν ἢ πρότερον,
ὁπότε σὺν ἡμῖν ἦτε, οἰστὰ δὲ ὅ ὅμως ἐπεπόνθειτε
ἂν καὶ φορητά. ἕνα γὰρ ἀντὶ πολλῶν θεὸν 3 ἐσέ-
βεσθε ἂν οὐκ ἄνθρωπον, “μᾶλλον δὲ πολλοὺς av
θρώπους δυστυχεῖς. καὶ νόμῳ σκληρῷ μὲν καὶ
τραχεῖ καὶ πολὺ τὸ ἄγριον ἔχοντι καὶ βάρβαρον
ἀντὶ τῶν παρ᾽ ἡμῖν ἐπιεικῶν καὶ φιλανθρώπων
1 Klimek would omit ἐν.
2 θεὸν Klimek ; θεῶν MSS., Neumann.
374
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
I had almost forgotten the greatest of the gifts of
Helios and Zeus. But naturally 1 kept it for the
last. And indeed it is not peculiar to us Romans
only, but we share it, I think, with the Hellenes our
kinsmen. I mean to say that Zeus engendered
Asclepius from himself among the intelligible gods,1
and through the life of generative Helios he
revealed him to the earth. Asclepius, having made
his visitation to earth from the sky, appeared at
Epidaurus singly, in the shape of a man; but after-
wards he multiplied himself, and by his visitations
stretched out over the whole earth his saving right
hand. He came to Pergamon, to Ionia, to Tarentum
afterwards; and later he came to Rome. And he
travelled to Cos and thence to Aegae. Next he is
present everywhere on land and sea. He visits no
one of us separately, and yet he raises up souls that
are sinful and bodies that are sick.
But what great gift of this sort do the Hebrews
boast of as bestowed on them by God, the Hebrews
who have persuaded you to desert to them? If
you had at any rate paid heed to their teachings, you
would not have fared altogether ill, and though worse
than you did before, when you were with us, still
your condition would have been bearable and support-
able. For you would be worshipping one god instead
of many, not a man, or rather many wretched men.?
And though you would be following a law that is
harsh and stern and contains much that is savage
and barbarous, instead of our mild and humane laws,
1 See Vol. 1, Introduction to Oration 4, p. 349; and for
Asclepius, Oration 4, 1448, where Julian, as here, opposes
Asclepius to Christ,; and 1538 for Asclepius the saviour,
2 The martyrs,
375
191 D
191 E
205 E
206 A
206 B
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
χρώμενοι τὰ μὲν ἄλλα “χείρονες ἂν ἦτε, ᾿ἁγνότεροι
δὲ καὶ καθαρώτεροι τὰς ἁγιστείας. νῦν δὲ ὑ ὑμῖν
συμβέβηκεν ὥσπερ ταῖς βδέλλαις τὸ χείριστον
ἕλκειν αἷμα ἐκεῖθεν, ἀφεῖναι δὲ τὸ καθαρώτερον.
ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς ἀναπείσας τὸ χείριστον τῶν παρ᾽
ὑμῖν, ὀλίγους πρὸς τοῖς τριακοσίοις ἐνιαυτοῖς
ὀνομάξεται, ἐργασάμενος παρ᾽ ὃν ἔξη χρόνον οὐδὲν
ἀκοῆς ἄξιον, εἰ μή τις οἴεται τοὺς κυλλοὺς καὶ
τυφλοὺς ἰάσασθαι καὶ δαιμονῶντας ἐξορκίξειν ἐν
Βηθσαιδᾷ καὶ ἐν Βηθανίᾳ ταῖς κώμαις τῶν μεγί-
στων ἔργων εἶναι. ἁγνείας μὲν οὐδὲ γὰρ εἰ πεποίη-
ται μνήμην ἐπίστασθε: ζηλοῦτε δὲ Ιουδαίων. τοὺς
θυμοὺς καὶ τὴν πικρίαν, ἀνατρέποντες "ἱερὰ καὶ
βωμοὺς καὶ ἀπεσφάξατε οὐχ ἡμῶν μόνον τοὺς
τοῖς πατρῴοις } ἐμμένοντας, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν ἐξ ἰσῆς
ὑμῶν πεπλανημένων αἱρετικοὺς τοὺς μὴ τὸν αὐτὸν
τρόπον ὑμῶν τὸν νεκρὸν θρηνοῦντας. ἀλλὰ ταῦτα
ὑμέτερα μᾶλλόν ἐστιν' οὐδαμοῦ yap οὔτε Ἰησοῦς
αὐτὰ παραδέδωκε κελεύων ὑμῖν οὔτε ἸΠαῦλος.
αἴτιον δέ, ὅτι μηδὲ ἤλπισαν εἰς τοῦτο ἀφίξεσθαί
ποτε δυνάμεως ὑ ὑμᾶς: ἠγάπων γάρ, εἰ θεραπαίνας
ἐξαπατήσουσι καὶ δούλους καὶ διὰ τούτων τὰς
γυναῖκας ἄνδρας τε, οἵους Κορνήλιος καὶ Σέργιος.
ὧν εἷς ἐὰν φανῇ τῶν τηνικαῦτα, γνωριξομένων
ἐπιμνηθεὶς ---ἐπὶ Τιβερίου γὰρ ἤτοι Κλαυδίου
ταῦτα éyiveto—, περὶ πάντων ὅτι ψεύδομαι
νομίζετε.
1 πατρίοις Asmus, but Julian uses both forms.
1 Cf. Misopogon 3618, Vol. 2.
* For the massacres of heretics by the Christians ef,
Julian’s letter 70 the Citizens of Bostra, Ὁ. 129,
3. Jesus Christ; cf. above, 194p.
376
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
and would in other respects be inferior to us, yet
you would be more holy and purer than now in your
forms of worship. But now it has come to pass that
like leeches you have sucked the worst blood from
that source and left the purer. YetJestsywh won
over the least worthy of you, has beenm-known by
name for but little more than three hundred years:
and during his lifetime he accomplished nothing
worth hearing of, unless anyone thinks that to heal
crooked and blind men and to exorcise those who
were possessed by evil demons in the villages of
Bethsaida and Bethany can be classed as a mighty
achievement. “As for purity of life you do not know
whether he so much as mentioned it; but you
emulate the rages and the bitterness of the Jews,
overturning temples and altars,1 and you slaughtered
not only those of us who remained true to the
teachings of their fathers, but also men who were as
much astray as yourselves, heretics,? because they did
not wail over the corpse® in the same fashion as
yourselves, But these are rather your own doings;
for nowhere did either Jesus or Paul hand down to
you such commands. The reason for this is that they
never even hoped that you would one day attain to
such power as you have; for they were content if they
could delude maidservants and slaves, and through
them the women, and men like Cornelius* and
Sergius. / But if you can show me that one of these
men is mentioned by the well-known writers of
that time,—these events happened in the reign of
Tiberius or Claudius,—then you may consider that
I speak falsely about all matters.
4 Acts 10, the story of Cornelius the centurion,
δ Acts 18, 6-12; Sergius was the proconsul.
377
209 D
209 "αὶ
210 A
213 A
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
᾿Αλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν οὐκ οἶδ᾽ ὅθεν ὥσπερ ἐπιπνεόμε-
νος ἐφθεγξάμην, ὅθεν δὲ ἐξέβην, ὅ ὅτι “Πρὸς τοὺς Ἴου-
δαίους ηὐτομολήσατε, τί τοῖς ἡμετέροις ἀχαριστή-
σαντες θεοῖς ; 3 ” ap ὅτι βασιλεύειν ἔδοσαν οἱ θεοὶ
τῇ Ῥώμῃ, τοῖς ᾿Ιουδαίοις ὀλίγον μὲν χρόνον ἐλευ-
θέρους εἶναι, δουλεῦσαι δὲ ἀεὶ καὶ παροικῆσαι ; ;
σκόπει τὸν “Αβραάμ' οὐχὶ πάροικος ἣν ἐν ἀλλο-
τρίᾳ ; ; τὸν Ἰακωβ' οὐ πρότερον μὲν Σύροις, ἑξῆς
δὲ ἐπὶ τούτοις Παλαιστινοῖς, ἐ ἐν γήρᾳ δὲ Αὐγυπ-
τίοις ἐδούλευσεν ; ; οὐκ ἐξ οἴκου δουλείας ἐξαγα-
γεῖν αὐτοὺς ὁ Μωυσῆς φησιν ἐξ Αἰγύπτου ἐν
βραχίονι ὑψηλῷ; ; κατοικήσαντες δὲ τὴν Παλαι-
στίνην, οὐ πυκνότερον ἤμειψαν τὰς τύχας ἢ τὸ
χρῶμά φασιν οἱ τεθεαμένοι τὸν χαμαιλέοντα. νῦν
μὲν ὑπακούοντες τοῖς κριταῖς, νῦν δὲ τοῖς ἀλλο-
φύλοις δουλεύοντες ; ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἐβασιλεύθησαν---
ἀφείσθω δὲ νῦν ὅπως" οὔτε γὰρ ὁ θεὸς ἑκὼν αὐτοῖς
τὸ βασιλεύεσθαι συνεχώρησεν, ὡς ἡ γραφή φησιν,
ada βιασθεὶς ὑπ᾽ αὐτῶν καὶ προδιαστειλάμενος,
ὅτι ἄρα φαύλως βασιλευθήσονται. πλὴν ἀλλ᾽
ὥκησαν “γοῦν τὴν ἑαυτῶν καὶ ἐγεώργησαν ὀλίγα
πρὸς τοῖς τριακοσίοις ἔτεσιν. ἐξ ἐκείνου πρῶτον
᾿Ασσυρίοις, εἶτα Μήδοις, ὕ ὕστερον Πέρσαις ἐδού-
λευσαν, εἶτα νῦν ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς. καὶ ὁ παρ᾽ ὑμῖν
κηρυττόμενος Ἰησοῦς εἷς ἦ ἣν τῶν Καίσαρος ὑπη-
κόων. εἰ δὲ ἀπιστεῖτε, μικρὸν ὕστερον ἀποδείξω"
μᾶλλον δὲ ἤδη λεγέσθω. φατὲ μέντοι μετὰ τοῦ
πατρὸς αὐτὸν ἀπογράψασθαι καὶ τῆς μητρὸς ἐπὶ
Κυρηνίου.
2 See above 2018. 2 Exodus 6. 6.
3 Judges 2, 16,
378
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
But I know not whence I was as it were inspired to -
utter these remarks. However, to return to the point
at which I digressed,! when I asked, “ Why were you
so ungrateful to our gods as to desert them for the
Jews?” Was it because the gods granted the sovereign
power to Rome, permitting the Jews to be free for a
short time only, and then forever to be enslaved and
aliens? / Look at Abraham: was he not an alien in a
strange land? And Jacob: was he not a slave, first
in Syria, then after that in Palestine, and in his old
age in Egypt? Does not Moses say that he led them
forth from the house of bondage out of Egypt “ with a
stretched out arm”?? And after their sojourn in
Palestine did they not change their fortunes more fre-
quently than observers say the chameleon changes its
colour, now subject to the judges,’ now enslaved to
foreign races? And when they began to be governed
by kings,—but let me for the present postpone asking
how they were governed: for as the Scripture tells
us,* God did not willingly allow them to have kings,
but only when constrained by them, and after pro-
testing to them beforehand that they would thus be
governed ill,—still they did at any rate inhabit their
own countryand tilled it for a little over three hundred
years. After that they were enslaved first to the
Assyrians, then to the Medes, later to the Persians,
and now at last to ourselves/ Even Jesus, who was
proclaimed among you, was one of Caesar's subjects.
And if you do not believe me I will prove it a little
later, or rather let me simply assert it now. How-
ever, you admit that with his father and mother
he registered his name in the governorship of
Cyrenius.°
41 Samuel 8. 5 Luke 2, 2,
| 379
213 B
213 C
218 A
218 B
218 C
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
᾿Αλλὰ γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος * τίνων ἀγαθῶν
αὔτιος κατέστη τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ συγγενέσιν ; ; οὐ , γὰρ
ἠθέλησαν, φασίν, ὑπακοῦσαι τοῦ Ἰησοῦ. τί δέ;
ὁ σκληροκάρδιος καὶ λιθοτράχηλος ἐκεῖνος. λαὸς
πῶς ὑπήκουσε τοῦ Μωυσέως" ᾿Ιησοῦς δέ, ὁ 0 τοῖς
πνεύμασιν ἐπιτάττων καὶ βαδίζων ἐπὶ τῆς θαλάσ-
σης καὶ τὰ δαιμόνια ἐξελαύνων, ὡς δὲ ὑμεῖς λέγετε,
τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν ἀπεργασάμενος---οὐ γὰρ
δὴ ταῦτα τετόὀλμηκέ τις εἰπεῖν περὶ αὐτοῦ τῶν
μαθητῶν, εἰ μὴ μόνος Ἰωάννης οὐδὲ αὐτὸς σαφῶς
οὐδὲ τρανῶς" ἀλλ᾽ εἰρηκέναι γε συγκεχωρήσθω---
οὐκ ἠδύνατο τὰς προαιρέσεις ἐπὶ σωτηρίᾳ τῶν
ἑαυτοῦ φίλων καὶ συγγενῶν μεταστῆσαι;
Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν καὶ μικρὸν ὕστερον, ὅταν ἰδίᾳ
περὶ τῆς τῶν εὐαγγελίων τερατουργίας καὶ σκευω-
ρίας ἐξετάζειν ἀρξώμεθα. νυνὶ δὲ ἀποκρίνεσθέ
μοι πρὸς ἐκεῖνο. πότερον ἄμεινον τὸ διηνεκῶς μὲν
ἐλεύθερον εἶναι, ἐν δισχιλίοις δὲ ὅλοις ἐνιαυτοῖς
ἄρξαι τὸ πλεῖον γῆς καὶ θαλάσσης, ἢ ἢ τὸ δουλεύειν
καὶ πρὸς ἐπίταγμα ζῆν ἀλλότριον ; οὐδεὶς οὕτως.
ἐστὶν ἀναίσχυντος, ὡς ἑλέσθαι | μᾶλλον τὸ δεύτερον.
ἀλλὰ τὸ πολέμῳ κρατεῖν ᾿οἰήσεταί τις τοῦ κρα-
τεῖσθαι χεῖρον ; οὕτω τίς ἐστιν ἀναίσθητος 3 εἰ δὲ
ταῦτα ἀληθῆ φαμεν, ἕνα μοι κατὰ ᾿Αλέξανδρον
δείξατε στρατηγόν, ἕνα κατὰ Καίσαρα παρὰ τοῖς
Ἑβραίοις. οὐ “γὰρ δὴ Tap ὑμῖν. καίτοι, μὰ τοὺς
θεούς, εὖ οἷδ᾽ ὅτι περιυβρίξω τοὺς ἄνδρας, ἐ ἐμνη-
μόνευσα δὲ αὐτῶν ὡς γνωρίμων. οἱ γὰρ δὴ. τούτων
ἐλάττους ὑπὸ τῶν πολλῶν ἀγνοοῦνται, ὧν ἕκαστος
1 ἄνθρωπος Neumann would add.
1 Ezekiel 3, 7,
380
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
But when he became man what benefits did he
confer on his own kinsfolk? Nay, the—Galilaeans
answer, they refused to hearken unt¢Jesus. What ?
How was it then that this hardhearted’ amtstubborn-
necked people hearkened unto Moses; but Jesus,
who commanded the spirits 2 and walked on the sea,
and drove out demons, and as you yourselves assert
made the heavens and the earth,—for no one of his
disciples ventured to say this concerning him, save
only John, and he did not say it clearly or distinctly ;
still let us at any rate admit that he said it—could
not this Jesus change the dispositions of his own
friends and kinsfolk to the end that he might save
them?
However, I will consider this again a little later
when I begin to examine particularly into the miracle-
working and the fabrication of the gospels. But
now answer me this. Is it better to be free con-
tinuously and during two thousand whole years to
rule over the greater part of the earth and the sea,
or to be enslaved and to live in obedience to the will
of others? No man is so lacking in self-respect as to
choose the latter by preference. Again, will anyone
think that victory in war is less desirable than defeat ?
Who is so stupid? But if this that I assert is the
truth, point out to me among the Hebrews a single
general like Alexander or Caesar! You have no such
man. And indeed, by the gods, I am well aware
that I am insulting these heroes by the question, but
I mentioned them because they are well known. For
the generals who are inferior to them are unknown
to the multitude, and yet every one of them deserves
2 Mark 1. 27.
381
222 A
224 C
224 D
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
, ς a n 3. / LU 3 \
πάντων ὁμοῦ τῶν παρ᾽ ᾿Εβραίοις γεγονότων ἐστὶ
θαυμαστότερος.
>? ? ς a , \ \ / lal
AXX’ ὁ τῆς πολιτείας θεσμὸς Kal τύπος τῶν
/
δικαστηρίων, ἡ δὲ περὶ Tas πόλεις οἰκονομία Kal
“Ὁ f ἈΝ lal
TOV vow! TO κάλλος, ἡ δὲ ἐν τοῖς μαθήμασιν
ἐπίδοσις, ἡ δὲ ἐν ταῖς ἐλευθερίοις τέχναις ἄσκησις
> «ς / \ 5 > / \ / /
οὐχ Εἰββραίων μὲν ἣν ἀθλία καὶ βαρβαρική ; καί-
τοι βούλεται ὁ μοχθηρὸς Εὐσέβιος εἶναί τινα καὶ
> - ἴω
παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς ἑξάμετρα, καὶ φιλοτιμεῖται λογικὴν
εἶναι πραγματείαν παρὰ τοῖς “Ἑβραίοις, ἧς τοὔ-
a Ἵ - n
voua ἀκήκοε Tapa τοῖς “Ελλησι. ποῖον ἰατρικῆς
εἶδος ἀνεφάνη παρὰ τοῖς “Ἑβραίοις, ὥσπερ ἐν
na ᾽
“ἔλλησι τῆς ‘Immoxpdtovs καί τινων ἄλλων μετ
A n /
ἐκεῖνον αἱρέσεων ; ὁ σοφώτατος Σολομῶν παρό-
, 2 A 207 [ὃ x / 5
fotos ἐστι τῷ Tap ἕλλησι Φωκυλίδῃ ἢ Θεόγνεδιε
ἢ Ἰσοκράτει ; πόθεν ; εἰ γοῦν παραβάλοις τὰς
Ισοκράτους παραινέσεις ταῖς ἐκείνου παροιμίαις,
εὕροις ἄν, εὖ οἶδα, τὸν τοῦ Θεοδώρου κρείττονα τοῦ
, Η 7 > > > a / \
σοφωτάτου βασίλέως. ἀλλ᾿ ἐκεῖνος, φασί, καὶ
e
περὶ θεουργίαν ἤσκητο. Ti ov; οὐχὶ Kal ὁ
Σολομῶν οὗτος τοῖς ἡμετέροις ἐλάτρευσε θεοῖς,
ὑπὸ τῆς γυναικός, ὡς λέγουσιν, ἐξαπατηθείς ; ὦ
a “ /
μέγεθος ἀρετῆς. ὦ σοφίας πλοῦτος. οὐ περιγέ-
γονεν ἡδονῆς, καὶ γυναικὸς λόγοι τοῦτον παρή-
yayov. εἴπερ οὖν ὑπὸ γυναικὸς ἠπατήθη, τοῦτον
td ’
σοφὸν μὴ λέγετε. εἰ δὲ πεπιστεύκατε σοφόν, μή
a /
TOL Tapa γυναικὸς αὐτὸν ἐξηπατῆσθαι νομίζετε,
1 After καὶ a lacuna; Gollwitzer, followed by Asmus,
suggests τῶν νόμων ; Neumann τῶν πολιτῶν.
1 Kusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica 11. 5. 5 says that Mose
and David wrote in ‘‘ the heroic metre.”
382
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
more admiration than all the generals put together
whom the Jews have had.
Further, as regards the constitution of the state
and the fashion of the law-courts, the administration
of cities and the excellence of the laws, progress in
learning and the cultivation of the liberal arts, were
not all these things in a miserable and barbarous state
among the Hebrews? And yet the wretched Eusebius
will have it that poems in hexameters are to be found
even among them, and sets up a claim that the study
of logic exists among the Hebrews, since he has
heard among the Hellenes the word they use for logic.
What kind of healing art has ever appeared among
the Hebrews, like that of Hippocrates among the
Hellenes, and of certain other schools that came
after him? Is their “ wisest”? man Solomon at all
comparable with Phocylides or Theognis or Isocrates
among the Hellenes? Certainly not. At least, if one
were to compare the exhortations of Isocrates with
Solomon’s proverbs, you would, I am very sure, find
that the son of Theodorus is superior to their
“wisest” king. “But,” they answer, “ Solomon was
also proficient in the secret cult of God.” What
then? Did not this Solomon serve our gods also,
deluded by his wife, as they assert?? What great
virtue! What wealth of wisdom! He could not
rise superior to pleasure, and the arguments of a
woman led him astray! Then if he was deluded
by a woman, do not call this man wise. But if you
are convinced that he was wise, do not believe that
he was deluded by a woman, but that, trusting to his
2 1 Kings 11. 4: ‘‘His wives turned away his heart after
other gods.” Julian may allude to Pharaoh’s daughter, see
1 Kings, 3. 1.
383
224 Τὶ
229 C
229 D
229 αὶ
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
κρίσει δὲ οἰκείᾳ καὶ συνέσει καὶ TH Tapa τοῦ
φανέντος αὐτῷ θεοῦ διδασκαλίᾳ πειθόμενον λελα-
, \ no» pe , .
τρευκέναι καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις θεοῖς. φθόνος yap καὶ
ζῆλος οὐδὲ ἄχρι τῶν ἀρίστων ἀνθρώπων ἀφικνεῖ-
ται, τοσοῦτον ἄπεστιν ἀγγέλων καὶ θεῶν. ὑμεῖς
δὲ ἄρα περὶ τὰ μέρη τῶν δυνάμεων στρέφεσθε, ἃ
δὴ δαιμόνιά τις εἰπὼν οὐκ ἐξαμαρτάνει. τὸ γὰρ
φιλότιμον ἐνταῦθα καὶ κενόδοξον, ἐν δὲ τοῖς θεοῖς
οὐδὲν ὑπάρχει καὶ τοιοῦτον.
Τοῦ χάριν ὑμεῖς τῶν παρ᾽ “ἕλλησι παρεσθίετε
μαθημάτων, εἴπερ αὐτάρκης ὑμῖν ἐστιν ἡ τῶν
ὑμετέρων γραφῶν. ἀνάγνωσις ; καίτοι κρεῖττον
ἐκείνων εἴργειν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἢ τῆς τῶν ἱεροθύ-
των ἐδωδῆς. ἐκ μὲν γὰρ ἐκείνης, καθὰ καὶ ὁ
Παῦλος λέγει, βλάπτεται μὲν οὐδὲν ὁ προσφερό-
μενος, ἡ δὲ συνείδησις τοῦ βλέποντος ἀδελφοῦ
σκανδαλισθείη ἂν καθ᾽ ὑμᾶς, ὦ σοφώτατοι καὶ
ὑπερήφανοι. διὰ δὲ τῶν μαθημάτων τούτων ἀπέ-
στη τῆς ἀθεότητος πᾶν ὅτι περ παρ᾽ ὑμῖν ἡ φύσις
ἤνεγκε γενναῖον. ὅτῳ οὖν ὑπῆρξεν εὐφυΐας κἂν
μικρὸν μόριον, τούτῳ τάχιστα συνέβη τῆς παρ᾽
ὑμῖν ἀθεότητος ἀποστῆναι. ᾿ βέλτιον οὖν εἴργειν
μαθημάτων, οὐχ ἱερείων τοὺς ἀνθρώπους. ἀλλ᾽
ἴστε καὶ ὑμεῖς, ὡς ἐμοὶ φαίνεται, τὸ διάφορον εἴς
σύνεσιν τῶν παρ᾽ ὑμῖν γραφῶν πρὸς τὰς ἡμετέρας,"
καὶ ὡς ἐκ τῶν παρ᾽ ὑμῖν οὐδεὶς ἂν γένοιτο γενναῖος
ἀνήρ, μᾶλλον δὲ οὐδὲ ἐπιεικής, ἐκ δὲ τῶν Tap’
ἡμῖν αὐτὸς αὑτοῦ πᾶς ἂν γένοιτο καλλίων, εἰ καὶ
παντάπασιν ἀφυής τις εἴη. φύσεως δὲ ἔχων εὖ
1 After σοφώτατοι lacuna, for which Neumann suggests καὶ
ὑπεοήφανοι.
2 After ἡμετέρας Neumann suggests κακόν, unnecessary.
384
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
own judgement and intelligence and the teaching that
he received from the God who had been revealed to
him, he served the other gods also. For envy and
jealousy do not come even near the most virtuous
men, much more are they remote from angels and
gods. But you concern yourselves with incomplete
and partial powers, which if anyone call daemonic
he does not err. For in them are pride and vanity,
but in the gods there is nothing of the sort.
If the reading of your own scriptures is sufficient
for you, why do you nibble at the learning of the
Hellenes? And yet it were better to keep men away
from that learning than from the eating of sacrificial
meat. For by that, as even Paul says,? he who eats
thereof is not harmed, but the conscience of the
brother who sees him might be offended according
to you, O most wise and arrogant men! But this
learning of ours has caused every noble being
that nature has produced among you to abandon
impiety. Accordingly everyone who possessed even
a small fraction of innate virtue has speedily aban-
doned your impiety. It were therefore better for
you to keep men from learning rather than from
sacrificial meats. But you yourselves know, it seems
to me, the very different effect on the intelligence of
your writings as compared with ours; and that from
studying yours no man could attain to excellence or
even to ordinary goodness, whereas from studying
ours every man would become better than before, even
though he were altogether without natural fitness.
But when a man is naturally well endowed, and
1 Julian seems to refer to the saints
2 1 Corinthians 8. 7-13.
385
VOL, Ill. cc
229 HK
230 A
235 B
235 C
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
Kal Tas ἐκ τούτων προσλαχὼν παιδείας “ἀτεχνῶς
γίνεται τῶν θεῶν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις δῶρον, ἤ ἤτοι φῶς
ἀνάψραξ᾽ ἐπιστήμης ἢ πολιτείας γένος ὑφηγησά.-
μενος ἢ πολεμίους πολλοὺς τρεψάμενος ἢ καὶ
πολλὴν μὲν γῆν, πολλὴν δὲ ἐπελθὼν θάλασσαν
καὶ τούτῳ φανεὶς ἡρωικός. γα δα
Τεκμήριον δὲ τοῦτο σαφές" ἐκ πάντων ὑμῶν
ἐπιλεξάμενοι παιδία ταῖς γραφαῖς ἐμμελετῆσαι
παρασκευάσατε. κἂν φανῇ τῶν ἀνδραπόδων εἰς
ἄνδρας * τελέσαντα σπουδαιότερα, ληρεῖν ἐμὲ
καὶ μελαγχολᾶν νομίζετε. εἶτα οὕτως ἐστὲ δυ-
στυχεῖς καὶ ἀνόητοι, ὥστε ,Ῥομίξειν θείους μὲν
ἐκείνους τοὺς λόγους, ὑφ᾽ ὧν οὐδεὶς ἂν γένοιτο
φρονιμώτερος οὐδὲ ἀνδρειότερος οὐδ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ
κρείττων: ὑφ᾽ ὧν δὲ ἔνεστιν ἀνδρείαν, φρόνη-
σιν, δικαιοσύνην προσλαβεῖν, τούτους ἀποδίδοτε,
τῷ σατανᾷ καὶ τοῖς τῷ σατανᾷ λατρεύουσιν.
"Tatas ᾿Ασκληπιὸς ἡμῶν τὰ σώματα, παιδεύου-
σιν ἡμῶν αἱ Μοῦσαι σὺν ᾿Ασκληπιῷ καὶ ᾿Απόλ.-
λων: καὶ Ἑρμῇ λογίῳ τὰς ψυχάς, “A pns ὃ δὲ καὶ
᾿Ενυὼ τὰ πρὸς τὸν πόλεμον συναγωνίζεται, τὰ δὲ
εἰς τέχνας Ἥφαιστος ἀποκληροῖ καὶ διανέμει,
ταῦτα δὲ πάντα ᾿Αθηνᾶ μετὰ τοῦ Διὸς παρθένος
ἀμήτωρ πρυτανεύει. σκοπεῖτε οὖν, εἰ μὴ καθ᾽
ἕκαστον τούτων ὑμῶν ἐσμεν κρείττους, λέγω δὲ τὰ
περὶ τὰς τέχνας καὶ σοφίαν καὶ σύνεσιν' εἴτε γὰρ
τὰς πρὸς τὴν χρείαν. σκοπήσειας, εἴτε τὰς τοῦ
καλοῦ χάριν μιμητικάς, οἷον ἀγαλματοποιητικήν,
1 For lacuna after γένος Neumann suggests ὑφηγησάμενοϑ.
2 ἄνδρας Asmus, cf. Misopogon 3560. ; ἄνδρα Neumann.
3 “Ape Neumann because verb in singular, but no change
is necessary.
386
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
moreover receives the education of our literature, he
becomes actually a gift of the gods to mankind,
either by kindling the light of knowledge, or by
founding some kind of political constitution, or by
routing numbers of his country’s foes, or even
by travelling far over the earth and far by sea, and
thus proving himself a man of heroic mould. . . .4
Nowthis would be a clear proof: Choose out children
from among you all and train and educate them
in your scriptures, and if when they come to man-
hood they prove to have nobler qualities than slaves,
then you may believe that I am talking nonsense and
am suffering from spleen. Yet you are so misguided
and foolish that you regard those chronicles of yours
as divinely inspired, though by their help no man
could ever become wiser or braver or better than he
was before; while, on the other hand, writings by
‘whose aid men can acquire courage, wisdom and
justice, these you ascribe to Satan and to those who
serve Satan !
Asclepius heals our bodies, and the Muses with the
aid of Asclepius and Apollo and Hermes, the god of
eloquence, train our souls; Ares fights for us in war
and Enyo also; Hephaistus apportions and administers
the crafts, and Athene the Motherless Maiden with
the aid of Zeus presides over them all. Consider
therefore whether we are not superior to you in
every single one of these things, I mean in the arts
and in wisdom and intelligence; and this is true,
whether you consider the useful arts or the imitative
arts whose end is beauty, such as the statuary’s art,
τ Some words are missing. The summary of Cyril shows
that Julian next attacked the Old Testament and ridiculed it
because it is written in Hebrew.
387
Ω
Ω
bo
235 D
238 A
238 B
238 C
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
γραφικήν, ἢ ἢ οἰκονομικήν, ἰατρικὴν τὴν ἐξ ᾿Ασκλη-
πιοῦ, οὗ πανταχοῦ γῆς ἐστι χρηστήρια, ἃ δίδωσιν
ἡμῖν ὁ θεὸς μεταλαγχάνειν διηνεκῶς. ἐμὲ γοῦν
ἰάσατο πολλάκις ᾿Ασκληπιὸς κάμνοντα, ὑπαγορεύ-
σᾶς φάρμακα: καὶ τούτων μάρτυς ἐστὶ Ζεύς. εἰ
τοίνυν ov? προσ! εἰμαντες € ἑαυτοὺς τῷ τῆς ἀποστα-
σίας πνεύματι τὰ περὶ ψυχὴν ἄμεινον ἔχομεν καὶ
περὶ σῶμα καὶ τὰ ἐκτός, τίνος ἕνεκεν ἀφέντες
ταῦτα ἐπ᾽ ἐκεῖνα βαδίξετε ; ;
"Av? ὅτου δὲ μηδὲ τοῖς “Εβραϊκοῖς λόγοις ἐμ-
μένετε μήτε ἀγαπᾶτε τὸν νόμον, ὃν δέδωκεν ὁ ὁ θεὸς
ἐκείνοις, ἀπολιπόντες δὲ τὰ πάτρια καὶ δόντες
ἑαυτοὺς οἷς ἐκήρυξαν οἱ προφῆται, πλέον ἐκείνων
ἢ τῶν map ἡμῖν ἀπέστητε; ; τὸ γὰρ ἀληθὲς εἴ τις
ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν ἐθέλοι σκοπεῖν, εὑρήσει τὴν ὑμετέραν
ἀσέβειαν ἔκ τε τῆς ᾿Ιουδαϊκῆς τόλμης καὶ τῆς
παρὰ τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ἀδιαφορίας καὶ “χυδαιότητος
συγκειμένην. ἐξ ἀμφοῖν γὰρ οὔτι τὸ κάλλιστον,
ἀλλὰ τὸ χεῖρον ἑλκύσαντες παρυφὴν κακῶν εἰργά-
σασθε. τοῖς μὲν “γὰρ Ἑβραίοις ἀκριβῆ τὰ περὶ
θρησκείαν ἐστὶ νόμιμα καὶ τὰ σεβάσματα καὶ
φυλάγματα μυρία καὶ δεόμενα βίου καὶ ΄προαι-
ρέσεως ἱερατικῆς. ἀπαγορεύσαντος δὲ τοῦ “ομο-
θέτου τὸ πᾶσι μὴ δουλεύειν τοῖς θεοῖς, ἑνὶ δὲ
μόνον, οὗ “ μερίς ἐστιν Ἰακὼβ καὶ σχοίνισμα κλη-
ρονομίας Ἰσραήλ," οὐ τοῦτο δὲ μόνον εἰπόντος,
ἀλλὰ γάρ, οἶμαι, καὶ προσθέντος “Οὐ κακολογήσεις
οὐ Klimek; of Neumann, who regards προσνείμαντεθ---
πνεύματι aS ἃ quotation from a Christian polemic against the
Pagans.
388
Ot
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
painting, or household management, and the art of
healing derived from Asclepius whose oracles are
found everywhere on earth, and the god grants to us
a share in them perpetually. At any rate, when
I have been sick, Asclepius has often cured me by
prescribing remedies; and of this Zeus is witness.
Therefore, if we who have not given ourselves over
to the spirit of apostasy, fare better than you in
soul and body and external affairs, why do you
abandon these teachings of ours and go over to those
others ?
And why is it that you do not abide even by the
traditions of the Hebrews or accept the law which
God has given to them? Nay, you have forsaken
their teaching even more than ours, abandoning the
religion of your forefathers and giving yourselves
over to the predictions of the prophets? For if any
man should wish to examine into the truth concern-
ing you, he will find that your impiety is compounded
of the rashness of the Jews and the indifference and
vulgarity of the Gentiles.1_ For from both sides you
have drawn what is by no means their best but their
inferior teaching, and so have made for yourselves a
border? of wickedness. For the Hebrews have precise
laws concerning religious worship, and countless
sacred things and observances which demand the
priestly life and profession. But though their law-
giver forbade them to serve all the gods save only that
one, whose “ portion is Jacob, and Israel an allotment
of his inheritance”; * though he did not say this only,
but methinks added also “Thou shalt not revile the
1 Cf. 438.
2 παρυφή, Latin clavus, is the woven border of a garment.
3 Cf. Deuteronomy 32. 9.
389
238 D
238 Εἰ
245 A
245 B
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
θεούς," ἡ τῶν ἐπιγινομένων βδελυρία τε Kal τόλμα,
βουλομένη πᾶσαν εὐλάβειαν ἐξελεῖν τοῦ πλήθους,
ἀκολουθεῖν ἐ ἐνόμισε τῷ μὴ θεραπεύειν τὸ βλασφη-
μεῖν, ὃ δὴ καὶ ὑμεῖς ἐντεῦθεν εἱλκύσατε μόνον" ὡς
τῶν γε ἄλλων οὐθὲν ὑ ὑμῖν τέ ἐστι κἀκείνοις παρα-
πλήσιον. ἀπὸ μὲν οὖν τῆς Ἑβραίων καινοτομίας
τὸ βλασφημεῖν τοὺς παρ᾽ ἡμῖν τιμωμένους θεοὺς
ἡρπάσατε. ἀπὸ δὲ τῆς παρ᾽ ἡμῖν θρησκείας τὸ
μὲν εὐσεβές τε ὁμοῦ πρὸς ἅ ἅπασαν τὴν κρείττονα
φύσιν καὶ τῶν πατρίων ἀγαπητικὸν ἀπολελοί-
πατε, μόνον δ᾽ ἐκτήσασθε τὸ πάντα ἐσθίειν ὡς
λάχανα χόρτου. καὶ εἰ χρὴ τἀληθὲς εἰπεῖν, ἐπι-
τεῖναι τὴν map’ ἡμῖν ἐφιλοτιμήθητε χυδαιότητα" *
τοῦτο δέ, οἶμαι, καὶ wan εἰκότως, συμβαίνει πᾶσιν
ἔθνεσιν' καὶ βίοις ἀνθρώπων εὐτελῶν," καπήλων,
τελωνῶν, ὀρχηστῶν, ἑταιροτρόφων καὶ ἁρμόττειν
φήθητε τὰ Tap ὑμῖν.
Ὅτι δὲ οὐχ οἱ νῦν, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ ἐξ ἀρχῆς, οἱ
πρῶτοι ane 14}: Τὸν λόγον παρὰ τοῦ Παύ-
λου τοιοῦτοί τινες γεγόνασιν, εὔδηλον ἐξ ὧν αὐτὸς
0 ἸΤαῦλος μαρτυρεῖ πρὸς αὐτοὺς γράφων. οὐ γὰρ
ἣν οὕτως ἀναίσχυντος, οἶμαι, ὡς μὴ συνειδὼς αὐ-
τοῖς ὀνείδη τοσαῦτα πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἐκείνους ὑπὲρ
αὐτῶν γράφειν, ἐξ ὧν, εἰ καὶ ἐπαίνους ἔγραψε το-
σούτους αὐτῶν, εἰ καὶ ἀληθεῖς ἐτύγχανον, ἐρυθριᾶν
1 χυδαιότητα"---καὶ Klimek; χυδαιότητα, καὶ «γὰρ Neu-
mann, failing to see the parenthesis.
2 Asmus ; ; ἑτέρων MSS , Neumann; Asmus πᾶσι γὰρ τοῖς
ἔθεσιν καὶ---εὐτελῶν---ὠφήθητε χρῆναι : ‘‘For you thought you
must adapt your ways to all the customs and lives of
worthless men.”’
1 Frodus 22. 98,
39°
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
gods’’;! yet the shamelessness and audacity of later
generations, desiring to root out all reverence from
the mass of the people, has thought that blasphemy
accompanies the neglect of worship. This, in fact, is
the only thing that you have drawn from this source;
for in all other respects you and the Jews have
nothing incommon. Nay, it is from the new-fangled
teaching of the Hebrews that you have seized upon
this blasphemy of the gods who are honoured among
us; but the reverence for every higher nature,
characteristic of our religious worship, combined with
the love of the traditions of our forefathers, you have
cast off, and have acquired only the habit of eating all
things, “even as the green herb.” 2 But to tell the
truth, you have taken pride in outdoing our vulgarity,
(this, I think, is a thing that happens to all nations,
and very naturally) and you thought that you must
adapt your ways to the lives of the baser sort, shop-
keepers,® tax-gatherers, dancers and libertines.
But that not only the Galilaeans of our day but
also those of the earliest time, those who were the
first to receive the teaching from Paul, were men of
this sort, is evident from the testimony of Paul
himself in a letter addressed tothem. For unless he
actually knew that they had committed all these
disgraceful acts, he was not, I think, so impudent as
to write to those men themselves concerning their
conduct, in language for which, even though in the
same letter he included as many eulogies of them,
he ought to have blushed, yes, even if those
2 Cf. 3140 and Oration 6. 1920, Vol. 2, where he quotes with
a sneer ‘‘ these words of the Galilaeans,” from Genesis 9. 3.
3 Cf. Letter 36 for Julian’s reproach against the Christian
rhetoricians that they behave like hucksters,
391
245 C
245 D
253 A
253 B
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
ἦν, εἰ δὲ ψευδεῖς. καὶ πεπλασμένοι, καταδύεσθαι
φεύγοντα τὸ μετὰ θωπείας λάγνου καὶ ἀνελευ-
θέρου κολακείας ἐντυγχάνειν δοκεῖν. ἃ δὲ γράφει
περὶ τῶν ἀκροασαμένων αὐτοῦ Παῦλος πρὸς av-
τοὺς ἐκείνους, ἐστὶ ταῦτα' “Μὴ πλανᾶσθε: οὔτε
εἰδωλολάτραι, οὔτε μοιχοί, οὔτε μαλακοῖΐ, οὔτε
ἀρσενοκοῖται, οὔτε κλέπται, οὔτε πλεονέκται, οὐ
μέθυσοι, οὐ λοίδοροι, οὐχ ἅρπαγες βασιλείαν θεοῦ
κληρονομήσουσι. καὶ παῦτα οὐκ ἀγνοεῖτε, ἀδελ-
φοί, ὅτι καὶ ὑμεῖς τοιοῦτον ἦτε. GAN ἀπελού-
σασθε, ἀλλ᾽ ἡγιάσθητε ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι “Inaov
Χριστοῦ. ὁρᾷς, ὅτι καὶ τούτους γενέσθαι φησὶ
τοιούτους, ἁγιασθῆναι δὲ καὶ ἀπολούσασθαι, ῥύ-
πτειν ἱκανοῦ καὶ διακαθαίρειν ὕδατος εὐπορή-
σαντος, ὃ μέχρι ψυχῆς εἰσδύσεται ; καὶ τοῦ μὲν
λεπροῦ τὴν λέπραν οὐκ ἀφαιρεῖται τὸ βάπτισμα,
οὐδὲ λειχῆνας οὐδὲ ἀλφοὺς οὔτε ἀκροχορδῶνας
οὐδὲ ποδάγραν οὐδὲ δυσεντερίαν, οὐχ ὕδερον, οὐ
παρωνυχίαν, οὐ μικρόν, οὐ μέγα τῶν τοῦ σώματος
ἁμαρτημάτων, μοιχείας δὲ καὶ ἁρπαγὰς καὶ πάσας
ἁπλῶς τῆς ψυχῆς παρανομίας ἐξελεῖ; ἐπ ΡΣ».
᾿Επειδὴ δὲ πρὸς μὲν τοὺς νυνὶ ᾿Ιουδαίους δια-
φέρεσθαί φασιν, εἶναι δὲ ἀκριβῶς ᾿Ισραηλῖται
κατὰ TOUS προφήτας αὐτῶν, καὶ τῷ Μωυσῇ
μάλιστα πείθεσθαι καὶ τοῖς ἀπ᾽ ἐκείνου περὶ τὴν
Ἰουδαίαν ἐπιγενομένοις προφήταις, ἴδωμεν, κατὰ
τί μάλιστα ὁμολογοῦσιν αὐτοῖς. ἀρκτέον δὲ ἡμῖν
ἀπὸ τῶν Μωυσέως, ὃν δὴ καὶ αὐτόν φασι προκη-
1 1 Corinthians 6. 9-11.
2 In Cyril’s summary, Julian next compares the Christian
converts with slaves who run away from their masters in the
392
νυν» τὰ πρὸς ἈΞ ὴΝΣ πὰ π ψ ψμν.
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
eulogies were deserved, while if they were false and
fabricated, then he ought to have sunk into the
ground to escape seeming to behave with wanton
flattery and slavish adulation. But the following are
the very words that Paul wrote concerning those who
had heard his teaching, and were addressed to the
men themselves: “ Be not deceived: neither idol-
aters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with men, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit
the kingdom of God. And of this ye are not
ignorant, brethren, that such were you also; but ye
washed yourselves, but ye were sanctified in the
name of Jesus Christ.”1 Do you see that he says
that these men too had been of such sort, but that
_ they “ had been sanctified ” and “ had been washed,’
water being able to cleanse and winning power to
purify when it shall go down into the soul? And
baptism does not take away his leprosy from the
leper, or scabs, or pimples, or warts, or gout, or
dysentery, or dropsy, or a whitlow, in fact no dis-
order of the body, great or small, then shall it do
away with adultery and theft and in short all the
transgressions of the soul? .. .?
Now since the Galilaeans say that, though they
are different from the Jews, they are still, precisely
speaking, Israelites in accordance with their prophets,
and that they obey Moses above all and the prophets
who in Judaea succeeded him, let us see in what
respect they chiefly agree with those prophets.
And let us begin with the teaching of Moses, who
himself also, as they claim, foretold the birth of
belief that, even if they do not succeed in escaping, their state
will be no worse than before.
393
253 C
253 D
253 H
THE EMPERCR JULIAN
ρύξαι τὴν ἐσομένην ᾿Ιησοῦ γέννησιν. ὁ τοίνυν
Μωυσῆς οὐχ ἅπαξ οὐδὲ δὶς οὐδὲ τρίς, ἀλλὰ
πλειστάκις ἕνα θεὸν μόνον ἀξιοῖ τιμᾶν, ὃν δὴ
καὶ ἐπὶ πᾶσιν ὀνομάζει, θεὸν δὲ ἕ ἕτερον οὐδαμοῦ"
ἀγγέλους δὲ ὀνομάξει καὶ κυρίους καὶ μέντοι καὶ
θεοὺς πλείονας, ἐξαίρετον δὲ τὸν πρῶτον, ἄλλον
δὲ οὐχ ὑπείληφε δεύτερον οὔτε ὅμοιον οὔτε ἀνό-
μοιον, καθάπερ ὑμεῖς ἐπεξείργασθε. εἰ δέ ἐστί
που παρ᾽ ὑμῖν ὑπὲρ τούτων μία Μωυσέως ῥῆσις,
ταύτην ἐστὲ δίκαιοι προφέρειν. τὸ “γὰρ “Προ-
φήτην ὑμῖν ἀναστήσει κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν ἐκ τῶν
ἀδελφῶν ὑμῶν ὡς ἐμέ: αὐτοῦ ἀκούσεσθε᾽᾽ μάλιστα
μὲν οὖν οὐκ εἴρηται περὶ τοῦ γεννηθέντος ἐκ
Μαρίας. εἰ δέ τις ὑμῶν ἕνεκα συγχωρήσειεν,
ἑαυτῷ φησιν αὐτὸν ὅμοιον γενήσεσθαι καὶ οὐ τῷ
θεῷ, προφήτην ὥσπερ, ἑαυτὸν καὶ ἐξ ἀνθρώπων,
ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἐκ θεοῦ. καὶ τὸ “Οὐκ ἐκλείψει ἄρχων
ἐξ ᾿Ιούδα οὐδὲ ἡγούμενος ἐκ τῶν μηρῶν αὐτοῦ"
μάλιστα μὲν οὐκ εἴρηται περὶ τούτου, ἀλλὰ περὶ
τῆς τοῦ Δαβὶδ βασιλείας, ἣ δὴ κατέληξεν εἰς
Σεδεκίαν τὸν βασιλέα. καὶ δὴ ἡ γραφὴ διπλῶς
πως ἔχει “ ἕως ἔλθῃ τὰ ἀποκείμενα αὐτῷ," παρα-
πεποιήκατε δὲ ὑμεῖς “ἕως ἔλθῃ ᾧ ἀπόκειται."
ὅτε δὲ τούτων οὐδὲν τῷ ᾿Ιἤσοῦ προσήκει, πρό-
δηλον" οὐδὲ γάρ ἐστιν ἐξ Ἰούδα. πῶς γὰρι ὁ κα
ὑμᾶς οὐκ ἐξ ᾿Ιωσήφ, arr ἐξ ἁγίου πνεύματος
γεγονώς ; τὸν ᾿Ιωσὴφ γὰρ γενεαλογοῦντες εἰς
τὸν ᾿Ιούδαν ἀναφέρετε καὶ οὐδὲ τοῦτο ἐδυνήθητε
1 Acts 3. 22; Deuteronomy 18. 18. Genesis 49. 10.
3 Or ‘‘ whose it is” ; Julian follows the Septuagint. The
version ‘‘until Shiloh come” was not then current; cf.
Skinner, Genesis, p. 522, It is still debated whether these
394
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
Jesus that was to be.'{.Moses, then, not once or
twice or thrice but meh i εορεὶ γᾷ says that men
ought to honour one God only, and in fact names him
the Highest; but-that they ought to honour any
other god he nowhere says. He speaks of angels and
lords and moreover of several gods, but from these
he chooses out the first and does not assume any god
as second, either like or unlike him, such as you have
invented. And if among you perchance you possess a
single utterance of Moses with respect to this, you are
bound to produce it. For the words “A prophet shall
the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren,
like unto me; to him shall ye hearken,” ! were certain-
ly not said of the son of Mary. And even though, to
please you, one should concede that they were said of
him, Moses says that the prophet will be like him
and not like God, a prophet like himself and born
of men, not of a god. And the words “The sceptre
shall not depart from Judah, nor a leader from his
loins,” 2? were most certainly not said of the son of
Mary, but of the royal house of David, which, you ob-
serve, came to an end with King Zedekiah. And cer-
tainly the Scripture can be interpreted in two ways
when it says “until there comes what is reserved for
him’”’ ; but you have wrongly interpreted it “ until he
comes for whom it is reserved.” ? But it is very clear
that not one of these sayings relates to Jesus; for he
is not even from Judah. How could he be when
according to you he was not born of Joseph but of
the Holy Spirit? For though in your genealogies
you trace Joseph back to Judah, you could not invent
words refer to the Davidic kingdom or to a future Messiah,
and there is no universally accepted rendering of the Hebrew
original.
395
261 E
262 B
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
πλάσαι καλῶς. ἐλέγχονται yap Ματθαῖος καὶ
Λουκᾶς περὶ τῆς γενεαλογίας αὐτοῦ διαφωνοῦντες
πρὸς ἀλλήλους. ἀλλὰ ; περὶ μὲν τοῦτου μέλλοντες
ἐν τῷ δευτέρῳ συγγράμματι τὸ ἀληθὲς ἀκριβῶς
ἐξετάξειν, ὑπερτιθέμεθα. συγκεχωρήσθω δὲ καὶ
ἄρχων ἐξ ᾿Ιούδα, οὐ “ θεὸς ἐ ἐκ θεοῦ " κατὰ τὰ παρ᾽
ὑμῶν λεγόμενα οὐδὲ «Ta πάντα δι᾽ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο
καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕ ἕν." ἀλλ᾽ εἴρηται
καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀριθμοῖς" a ᾿Ανατελεῖ ἄ ἄστρον ἐξ Ἰακὼβ
καὶ ἄνθρωπος ἐξ. ᾿Ισραήλ." 1 τοῦθ᾽ ὅτι τῷ Δαβὶδ
προσήκει, καὶ τοῖς ἀπ᾽ ἐκείνου, πρόδηλόν ἐστί
που τοῦ γὰρ Ἰεσσαὶ παῖς ἣν ὁ Δαβίδ.
Eitrep οὖν ἐκ τούτων ἐπιχειρεῖτε συμβιβάξειν,
ἐπιδείξατε "μίαν ἐκεῖθεν ἑλκύσαντες ῥῆσιν, ὅποι
πολλὰς πάνυ ἐγώ. ὅτι δὲ θεὸν τὸν ἕνα τὸν τοῦ
Ἰσραὴλ νενόμικεν, ἐν τῷ Δευτερονομίῳ φησίν"
“Ὥστε εἰδέναι σε, ὅτι κύριος ὁ ὁ θεός σου, οὗτος
θεὸς εἷς ἐστι, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἄλλος πλὴν αὐτοῦ."
καὶ ἔτι ; πρὸς τούτῳ' “ Καὶ ἐπιστραφήσῃ τῇ διανοίᾳ
σου, ὅτι κύριος ὁ θεός σου οὗτος θεὸς ἐν τῷ
οὐρανῷ ἄνω καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς κάτω καὶ οὐκ ἔστι
πλὴν αὐτοῦ." καὶ πάλιν" ἐ Ἄκουε, Ἰσραήλ,
κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν κύριος εἷς ἐστι." καὶ πάλιν"
“Ἴδετε, ὅτε ἐγώ εἰμι καὶ οὐκ ἔστι θεὸς πλὴν ἐμοῦ."
, γώ εἰμ εὸς πλὴν ἐμοῦ
ταῦτα μὲν οὗν ὁ Μωυσῆς ἕνα διατεινόμενος
μόνον εἶναι θεόν. ἀλλ᾽ οὗτοι τυχὸν ἐροῦσιν"
οὐδὲ ἡμεῖς δύο λέγομεν οὐδὲ τρεῖς. ἐγὼ δὲ
λέγοντας μὲν αὐτοὺς καὶ τοῦτο δείξω, μαρτυ-
1 Neumann in view of the next two sentences would read
Ἰεσσαί, ““ Jesse.”
1 Οἱ, Matthew 1. 1-17 with Luke 3. 23-38,
396
AGAINST THE GALILAEANS
even this plausibly. For Matthew and Luke are
refuted by the fact that they disagree concerning his
genealogy.! However, as I intend to examine closely
into the truth of this matter in my Second Book, I
leave it till then.? But granted that he really is ‘‘a
sceptre from Judah,” then he is not “ God born of
God,” as you are in the habit of saying, nor is it true
that “ All things were made by him; and without him
was not any thing made.” But, say you, we are
told in the Book of Numbers also: ‘There shall arise
a star out of Jacob, and a man out of Israel.” * It is
certainly clear that this relates to David and to his
descendants; for David was a son of Jesse.
If therefore you try to prove anything from these
writings, show me a single saying that you have
drawn from that source whence I have drawn very
many. But that Moses believed in one God, the
God of Israel, he says in Deuteronomy: “So that
thou mightest know that the Lord thy God he is one
God; and there is none else beside him.”* And
moreover he says besides, “ And lay it to thine heart
that this the Lord thy God is God in the heaven
above and upon the earth beneath, and there is none
else.” ® And again, “ Hear, O Israel: the Lord our
God is one Lord.” 7 And again, “See that I am and
there is no God save me.”8 These then are the
words of Moses when he insists that there is only
one’ God. But perhaps the Galilaeans will reply:
“ But we do not assert that there are two gods or
three.” But I will show that they do assert this
2 Cyril’s reply to this part of Julian’s Second Book is lost,
so that the Emperor’s more detailed discussion cannot be
reconstructed. 3 John 1. 3. 4 Numbers 24, 17.
5 Deuteronomy 4. 35. 5 Deuteronomy 4. 39.
7 Deuteronomy 6. 4. 8 Deuteronomy 32. 39.
397
262 C
262 D
262 EH
THE EMPEROR JULIAN
popevos Ἰωάννην λέγοντα" a ‘Ey ἀρχῇ ἣν ὁ λόγος
καὶ ὁ λόγος ἣν πρὸς τὸν θεὸν καὶ θεὸς ἣν ὁ "λόγος."
ὁρᾷς, ὅτι πρὸς τὸν θεὸν εἶναι λέγεται ; εἴτε ὁ ἐκ
Μαρίας γεννηθεὶς εἴτε ἄλλος τίς ἐστιν---ἵν᾽ ὁμοῦ
καὶ πρὸς Φωτεινὸν a ἀποκρίνωμαι--, διαφέρει τοῦτο
νῦν οὐδέν' ἀφίημι δῆτα τὴν μάχην ὑμῖν. ὅτι
μέντοι φησὶ “πρὸς Oeov” καὶ “ἐν ἀρχῇ, τοῦτο
ἀπόχρη μαρτύρασθαι. πῶς οὖν ὁμολογεῖ ταῦτα
τοῖς Μωυσέως ; ;
᾿Αλλὰ τοῖς Ἡσαΐου, φασίν, ὁμολογεῖ. λέγει
γὰρ Ἡσαΐας" tf ᾿Ιδοὺ ἡ παρθένος ἐν γαστρὶ ἕξει
καὶ τέξεται υἱόν." ἔστω δὴ καὶ τοῦτο λεγόμενον
ὑπὲρ θεοῦ, καίτοι μηδαμῶς εἰρημένον: οὐ γὰρ ἣν
παρθένος ἡ γεγαμημένη καὶ πρὶν ἀποκυῆσαι
συγκατ 
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